Luke MacDonald

engrossing

Reviewed: 09-08-10

I usually skip the portion of art museums dedicated to 16th century English art and furniture, and have never otherwise thought that period of history to be particularly interesting, so I was pleasantly shocked to find myself fully engaged by this mesmerizing story. Mantel's characterization was impeachable. The events that rock the church and state of England, even of Europe, are fascinating. After finishing the book,I felt as though I'd lived through the events myself, and I have a newfound appetite for learning more about the real history behind the book.

One minor complaint- what is up with the ambiguous use of pronouns? It drove me a little nuts and made the book more difficult to follow. Even the narrator became confused, every now and then reading the wrong character's voice.

When unclear, "he" usually referred to Cromwell, so here's one possible explanation: consistently using "he" while referring to Cromwell when other characters are present in a scene emphasizes Cromwell's prominence and centrality to the story. This is kind of like saying "The City" when referring to New York, even if you live in Jersey and Philadelphia is equally close. Does Mantel capitalizes it as "He" in the text? That would support this theory.

Although the narrator was initially off-putting due to his breathy, almost sinister reading, he eventually won me over. I am still not certain if Thomas More deserved as villainous a voice as the reader chose to use.

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2 people found this helpful

Interesting read, poor audio quality

Reviewed: 09-08-10

At the time I downloaded this book only Format 3 was available, which is a big step down in audio quality from other audiobooks in my Library. Eventually, I got used to the muffled sounds, but it is far from ideal.


Minor Spoiler Alert:
Tom Robbins develops interesting, believable characters and amusing situations in Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, my first Robbins read, and he has a knack for churning out unexpectedly clever metaphors. I love the second person narration. But, about 3/4 of the way through the book, he uses the characters as mouthpieces to lecture on ridiculous theories of aliens and ancient civilization. This dialogue seemed forced, and my interest in the book waned, but I have stuck with it.

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Interesting read, poor audio quality

Reviewed: 09-08-10

At the time I downloaded this book only Format 3 was available, which is a big step down in audio quality from other audiobooks in my Library. Eventually, I got used to the muffled sounds, but it is far from ideal.


Minor Spoiler Alert:
Tom Robbins develops interesting, believable characters and amusing situations in Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, my first Robbins read, and he has a knack for churning out unexpectedly clever metaphors. I love the second person narration. But, about 3/4 of the way through the book, he uses the characters as mouthpieces to lecture on ridiculous theories of aliens and ancient civilization. This dialogue seemed forced, and my interest in the book waned, but I have stuck with it.

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You reported this review!