I. M. Reading

Disappointing

Reviewed: 11-26-23

I'm sorry I wasted a credit on this book. I took it out of the library and mostly "read" the book along with listening. For awhile, I couldn't put it down, but then it just got silly. I thought the first "surprise" was interesting. I can see how it might be confusing to listen to this and follow who is who, it was clearer on the written page. After awhile, I just wanted it to end and the ending was a complete dud and didn't make any sense. Very disappointing!

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When good books go bad

Reviewed: 10-15-23

When I started listening to this book, I was hooked. I was wishing I had the book, so that I could keep reading when I couldn't listen. It was very exciting with interesting characters and the wonderful setting of cold and snowy Geneva. You just knew something was going to happen. The narration by the author and Nicola Walker was excellent. But at some point, the book just went off on too many improbable storylines. It seemed to get more and more convoluted and unbelievable. After awhile, I was ready for it to end. It certainly was good while it lasted but sadly, for me, it went on too long.

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Too many characters and plots

Reviewed: 02-03-23

I've just started reading/listening to Louise Penny and I'm hooked. Loved the book "Still Life" and the 6 episode TV series. But, this book was just too long, too complicated and in need of a good edit. Too many plots and characters! I guess it all came together eventually, but it was a slog to get there. It was interesting to learn about Ewan Cameron who was a real person and became a central focus of the story. I hope this book is an outlier - I'm not ready to leave Three Pines just yet.

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Incredible book you can't put down

Reviewed: 12-29-22

I could run out of adjectives trying to describe this gorgeous book. This book is about the love of family - the one we are born into and the family we make out of necessity. The early chapters describing his life in El Salvador are warm and funny and sentimental. The book takes a turn when the author describes the harrowing events of the journey north, his amazing courage and determination in the face of so many obstacles. And we have to remember that is a tale told by a nine-year old boy. I cannot stop thinking about this book - it will stay with me for a long time. My only gripe is that there is a good deal of untranslated Spanish. I downloaded the book on Kindle and switched between listening and reading. Seeing the words in print allowed me to look them up - I learned a lot of Spanish curses! But I always went back to the audible version because listening to Zamora narrate made the book really come to life.

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A slog of a book!

Reviewed: 11-29-21

Perhaps it's not fair to write a review before finishing the book, I still have 5 hours to go. Sad to say, I find this book to be a slog. I understand that Emmet's journey is supposed to be comparable to Ulysses in the Odyssey where the hero faces and conquers many obstacles along the way, but enough already! Too many distractions that take away from the main story. Too many awful characters. I find myself fast forwarding just to be finished with their chapters. Since I have already devoted 11 hours to this book, I will finish it and hope that the ending will make me want to change this review. But this is definitely not comparable to "A Gentleman in Moscow"

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Ayad Akhtar's narration brings the book to life

Reviewed: 10-04-21

With my Audible subscription, most of my reading is done by listening, and the narrator can make or break the book for me. Two books stand out "A Burning" by Megha Majumdar and "Walking with Ghosts" by Gabriel Byrne where the narrator was so marvelous I was glad I had listened instead of reading the book. I feel the same about "Homeland Elegies". This is a magnificent book and I loved hearing it. The author did a wonderful job narrating this book, giving us the voice of his father, mother and others. The book is sometimes funny, often sad, always interesting, taking place in the US and sometimes Pakistan. Excellent description of the highs and lows of the immigrant experience and the lives of the children of immigrants born here. Next I'm going to read "American Dervish" written and narrated by Ayad Akhtar.

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Don't read this book, LISTEN TO IT!

Reviewed: 02-21-21

This is what I tell people about this beautiful, luminous book. I have always loved Gabriel Byrne as an actor and now I see that he is a wonderful writer as well. Byrne's lyrical lilt make his stories come to life and add so much to the book. The way the chapters skip around between early days, his time as a young man trying to find himself, and his career as an actor, are a unique way of writing a memoir. Like memory itself, one's memories appear unbidden from time to time not necessarily in sequence. I loved the experience of listening to this book.

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Excellent all around experience

Reviewed: 07-21-20

I was sad to come to the end of this book and I won't soon forget it. The lives of three characters intersect in this book about life in India. The writing is beautiful, and the narration is spectacular. Each character had his/her authentic voice. This is an instance where listening to a book, rather than reading, enhanced the experience. This was a first novel by this author and I hope she will continue writing.

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Missing story

Reviewed: 04-30-18

Would you listen to A Good Fall again? Why?

I also have the book version and so am listening to both - no need to listen again

Any additional comments?

In the hardback book version, there is an additional story, called "The Beauty" I was to read 3 stories for my book group and "The Beauty" was one of them - don't understand why it is missing from the audible version. Had to get the hard copy of the book (from the library) to read it.

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