Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Crossing Press Feminist Series, Book 1

By: Audre Lorde

Narrated by: Robin Eller

Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's Summary

Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider celebrates an influential voice in 20th-century literature. In this charged collection of 15 essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope.

This commemorative edition includes a new foreword by Lorde scholar and poet Cheryl Clarke, who celebrates the ways in which Lorde's philosophies resonate more than 20 years after they were first published.

©2007 Audre Lorde (P)2016 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"Still powerful." ( Library Journal)

Great material, awful performance

The narrator is straight trash. Lorde was such an eloquent and powerful writer that it sucks to have her material being read through this horrible computer sounding voice. Do better

Audre Lord is superb; this narrator is not

Seriously, who picked this bland, robotic narrator for the powerful, inspiring words of Audre Lord??!! I usually try to give voice performers a little leeway because I know how challenging it can be, but this was easily one of the most boring narrations that I have ever heard. Luckily, the content was strong enough to keep me listening, but I was grateful when it was over, as it took energy to stay focused on the words with such a monotonous reading of them. I would recommend you buy the actual book and read it yourself.

A must read.

I read this book in college then taught it while in grad school to undergraduates. Listening to it again has been profound in many many ways. The fact that it is still so relevant is both frustrating and powerful. Audrey Lourde should be required reading for everyone not just college educated. She writes in a very accessible manner and her way of explaining things is digestible mentally and even emotionally. This is a book that I have internalized and will always carry with me in my heart and I enjoyed to listening to it. The problem I had was that the narrator to me sounded like a bad version of Siri. Having had the privilege of hearing Audrey Lorde speak many many years ago in Montreal, her voice then was very different and more passionate & had gravitas. The narrator's voice however felt mechanical and dispassionate and her pronunciation Adrianne drove me nuts. But I still had to listen to every word to the end because I love the author so much. Don't miss this.

Performance so bad I couldn’t finish

The voice sounded like a robot. It was so monotone and dull I had to stop by chapter 3 unfortunately. I’ll be picking up a hard copy of this book as an alternative but I wasted $ on this version.

DO NOT Listen to this Book - Read it.

What did you like best about Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches? What did you like least?

Audre Lorde is an amazing writer and essential voice to feminists, WOC, and the lesbian community. But to get the most out of this book you should pick it up at your favorite used bookstore. The lack of emotion in this performance lower Lorde's powerful words to the level of a barely successful used car salesman giving a high school commencement speech.

What other book might you compare Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches to and why?

Women, Race and Class - Angela Davis.
Ain't I a Woman - Bell Hooks

Mixing well researched, historical facts with personal anecdotes.

What didn’t you like about Robin Eller’s performance?

I wanted to finish this book for my monthly book club & when it was announced I was looking forward to it! I thought essays and speeches would inherently lend themselves to an audiobook seamlessly. I was very wrong.
This performance is embarrassingly awful. There's a severe lack of emotion and emphasis throughout the entire book. You can barely tell when one chapter/essay ends and the other begins.
Many times I played sections back because what was said should've been an extremely powerful moment & I wanted to absorb the impact of Lorde's words, but Eller's performance was so flat it lowers the quality of the message. It's really a tragedy considering the impact this book should be having on listeners.

Was Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches worth the listening time?

No. I eventually sped up the time to get through it faster.

Any additional comments?

Please have someone re-record this.

One of the most important things I have ever listened to.

This audiobook was amazing. Lorde is thoughtful, engaging, and heartbreaking with her words. Robin does a great job keeping her emotions out of it so you can hear the depth of what Lorde is saying rather than her interpretation of what Lorde is saying. This is one of the best books I have ever read or listened to.

Horrible narration! Great information!

The narrator really takes away from the experience of the book. Please read it for yourself for added inflection that I now know is sorely missing from this version. The writing and messages are amazing and SO very needed! It's timeless, this one, but a timeless READ. Not listen.

Narration Weak, Just Get a Physical Copt

Audre Lorde was an incredible writer, speaker, and poet. I was horribly disappointed to find that the robotic narration watered down the passion of Lorde’s theory. I would finish chapter after chapter realizing I wasn’t able to engage and had therefore forgotten what was said. It is also ironic a text about Black struggle was read by a person who couldn’t be bothered to learn the proper pronunciation of several African cities, gods, names, and even the name of the author herself. Just get a physical copy. You might absorb more.

Sounds robotic...

The stories are great, Ms. Lorde is magnificent but the narrator sounds very robotic. Buy the book and read it yourself...

Great book, not so great narration

This book is outstanding and very necessary!

The narrator's voice however is robotic - like listening to Siri read a book for seven hours.

An incredible book, badly produced and performed

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Audre Lorde was an incredible writer and speaker, and the content of this book is deeply profound and, in and of itself, well worth listening to. However, two major issues with the audio book make it difficult to enjoy. First of all, the narrator is dull, passionless and frankly sounds like she's reading out the FTSE index. She's a terrible choice for the work given that Lorde's rhetoric is so full of passion and urgency. Secondly, whoever edited/mastered the recording has gone overboard with whatever plugin it is that removes the breaths from a voice artist, to the extent where the beginning of each sentence is clipped - the first letter or syllable is regularly missing because the editors have cut out each and every breath in the recording. I found this highly distracting and irritating. I understand that heavy breaths and background clicks etc need to be edited out but this recording goes to far. It adds an even more artificial, lifeless quality to the narrator's already flat, bored, expressionless reading. "Sister Outsider" is a remarkable work that deserves more thought and care in its delivery and presentation as an audio book. Very disappointing.

Good book but read robotically

It’s a shame that the publishers couldn’t choose someone else to read the book,
Because that is the only thing that destoyed my experience. The message is good as André lorde is obviously a genius, but it’s painful to sit through hours of a monotone , robotic sounding voice (audible, was it actually read by a robot??). Sounds like Siri reading the book literally. Please buy a paper or ebook version of the book instead.

Content is excellent, but narration doesn't engage

This is one of the most important works of its kind and of interest to feminists and womanist of all persuasion. However the narrator does not do it justice and sounds like she's reading someone else's notes. The editor needed to ensure the reader was given the opportunity for a more polished performance.

narrator very annoying

This is an amazing book, but the narrator is shrill, has trouble pronouncing some words.

Important and insightful.

A wonderful and integral collection of essays and speeches from Audre Lorde. Essential listening. The only improvement would be the delivery - very robotic and takes time to get used to - slightly detracts from the overall experience which is unfortunate.

Please change the narrator!

This is a deeply important book. Unfortunately the bland, monotone, almost computer generated sounding narration strips this work of much of its power, meaning and nuance, making it extremely difficult to listen to. Please please please can this be rereleased with new narration.... hopefully read and produced by someone who is invested in conveying passion, humanity and depth in Lorde’s work.

Absolutely exquisite

I hung on her every beautiful, carefully crafted word from beginning to end
Highly recommend.

Good Book, Bad Reading

Audre Lorde is a wonderful writer but I am not a fan of the narration at all. It sounds as though it's being read by Siri, a GPS, or some other robotic, auto-generated voice, which made it hard to focus despite my genuine interest in the text.

Audre’s wisdom

Incredibly insightful and goosebump provoking.

My only critique is of the narration as it is hard to notice the change of chapter without it being stated.

Terrible narration

The narrator sounds like a robot which completely destroys any enjoyment of the book itself. She consistently gets the intonation and pace of the sentences wrong, so they become meaningless and unbearable to listen to.