Jeff
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Winston's War
- By: Michael Dobbs
- Narrated by: Terry Wale
- Length: 19 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 10
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3
Saturday, October 1, 1938: Two men meet. One is elderly, the other in his 20s. One will become the most revered man of his time, and the other known as the greatest of traitors.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Some good info on WW2 but poor story execution
- By Jeff on 03-18-05
- Winston's War
- By: Michael Dobbs
- Narrated by: Terry Wale
Some good info on WW2 but poor story execution
Reviewed: 03-18-05
'Winston's War' is very disappointing. There are some excellent novelistic profiles of Churchill and Chamberlain and his toadies in this book about events prior to WW2. But Guy Burgess, the soviet spy, was never an important player in any of these pre-war events as fictionally portrayed here. Nor is the Burgess character made the least bit interesting, which in a perverse way he surely was, by his association with Donald MacLean, Kim Philby and Blunt, none of whom, if you can believe it, are mentioned anywhere in this novel. Minor fictional characters like an emigre barber are introduced and discarded without the least effect on the story other than wasting the listener's time way overlong. Several of the most consequential Churchillian events and speeches prior to WW2 are completely omitted. If the author had stuck to just the high level shenanigans leading up to WW2 in the British political parties and press, he might have found a rewarding story here. But the author got hung up on the expressed homosexuality of some upper class hypocrites working well beneath any meaningful policy levels to explain some strange turning points, none of which makes the slightest sense, even in hindsight. Find a better book to listen to. This novel is a waste of your time.
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4 people found this helpful
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Spytime
- The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton
- By: William F. Buckley Jr.
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 14
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 16
James Jesus Angleton was the master, a legend in the time of spies. Founder of U.S. counterintelligence at the end of World War II, ruthless hunter of moles and enemies of America, his name is synonymous with skullduggery and intellectual subterfuge. Now, best-selling author William F. Buckley, Jr., presents a subtle and thrilling fictional account of the spymaster's life.
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1 out of 5 stars
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This book is not worth a minute of your time
- By Jeff on 03-15-05
- Spytime
- The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton
- By: William F. Buckley Jr.
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
This book is not worth a minute of your time
Reviewed: 03-15-05
William Buckley should stick to political interviews and commentary if Spytime is a good example of his novel writing. His characters, at least two of whom, James Jesus Angleton and Kim Philby, are two of the most fascinating spies and counterspies of all time, never leave their cardboard images. Buckley's sex scenes are laughable, but perhaps laudable in a man of his conservative stripe. You can easily mistake them for massage therapy sessions. He violated the first rule of sex writing: if you cannot write the scene at least as erotically as Henry Miller, skip it. But the worst sin of Spytime is that it is incredibly dull, leaving out some of the most explosive incidents in the wonderful world of espionage from 1950 to 1974 and the exciting conversations that surrounded them. Buckley could have easily gleaned these exciting incidents from public records and embued them with dynamite suspense and interest, if he were John Le Carre. He is not even close, alas. Don't make my mistake and listen to this book.
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8 people found this helpful
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The Rabbit Factory
- By: Larry Brown
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 56
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
Set in Memphis, Tennessee, and northern Mississippi, The Rabbit Factory presents a wildly diverse cast of characters who are looking for love, but not necessarily in all the right places. Helen is a sex-starved alcoholic who combs the local bars looking for the one thing her sugar daddy can't give her. Arthur, Helen's aging sugar daddy, is very wealthy, but suffers from severe self-confidence issues. Believing himself unloved, Eric is a runaway who oddly becomes Arthur's adopted son.
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1 out of 5 stars
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The Rabbit Factory is not worth any of your time
- By Jeff on 03-13-04
- The Rabbit Factory
- By: Larry Brown
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
The Rabbit Factory is not worth any of your time
Reviewed: 03-13-04
I was ashamed to have listened to The Rabbit Factory all the way through in the hopes it would improve. It only got worse. Do not waste a second of your time on it. The book concerns the interrelationships among several Southern lowlifes, none of whom is the least interesting, funny or even raunchy as advertised. Most characters are violent, drunk, stoned or repugnant in some way. Larry Brown must have written something good sometime in order to get an agent and publisher for this dreck, but this is not it.
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5 people found this helpful
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Red Azalea
- By: Anchee Min
- Narrated by: Nancy Kwan
- Length: 2 hrs and 56 mins
- Abridged
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Overall3 out of 5 stars 14
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Performance3 out of 5 stars 5
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Story3 out of 5 stars 5
Born in Shanghai in 1957, Anchee Min became a member of the Little Red Guards and was sent at age 17 to work at a labor collective, the Red Fire Farm. Her education was one of fear, deprivation, and hardship. Forbidden to speak, dress, read, write, or love as she pleased, she nevertheless found a lifeline that helped her survive the horrors of her daily existence. Red Azalea is an eloquent, poignant true story in which Anchee Min tells of her own emotional and political education, opening a window on the Cultural Revolution to reveal the toll it took on the young men and women caught...
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4 out of 5 stars
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Red Azalea
- By Jeff on 03-13-04
- Red Azalea
- By: Anchee Min
- Narrated by: Nancy Kwan
Red Azalea
Reviewed: 03-13-04
This is a marvelous memoir of China just before the modern era of Dung Shao Ping and the commercial rebirth of China. This is a story of an intelligent woman forced to live in the country during Mao's Cultural Revolution and ended up in the state-run movie industry due to her looks and lucky connections.
It is a frank and warm memoir without insipid political overtones. Most edifying. Well worth your time if Mao's China interests you.
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7 people found this helpful