Audio Killed the Literature Star

[spectralbovine]

Tonight I have a very special double feature! Two works of "literary fiction," one that makes for an amazing audiobook and one that does not. See if you can guess which is which!

In recent years, I've become really interested in the fact that everything you know about how the world works, what it is, you learn. You come into the world all tabula

Comments

[spectralbovine]

It's not grisly! And it can be very funny and cute at times because the narrator is a kid. I thought it would be super depressing too, but Jack is so adorable that he doesn't even realize how depressing his life is. Pretty much everything that is actually horrible is only implied since he doesn't really understand it.

[missquita]

Room is one of my favorite books; I'm glad you enjoyed it. And I'm intrigued to discover the differences between reading a book and listening to a book -- I wonder what, safely assuming any, different opinions and insights one takes away from each medium.

[spectralbovine]

I think an audiobook with a multi-actor cast can definitely add a lot to a book because there is a stronger element of performance there, which makes it almost like an adaptation of sorts. But even if you just have one really great reader like Jim Dale or Tim Curry, it can give you a whole new experience. And some books are better suited to the format than others.

[missquita]

I've never listened to an audiobook so I'm still leery of the format. It seems that it takes the book out of my imagination and lends it a foundation that it out of my experience -- an experience given to me rather than formed of my mind from the text alone. Not a bad thing, just different. A step between a book and a film adaptation, maybe. Interesting.

[sdwolfpup]

Room is a great book, but I found it one of the most intensely stressful reading experiences of my life. That escape scene almost made me physically sick I was so worried that they would not BOTH make it out. So I always feel like I have to qualify recommendations for it. Heh. Also, I read it when Puplet was still a year old, so I was having very strong Mom-attachment feelings to it.

[spectralbovine]

Ha, perfect icon is perfect.

[smrou]

I agree with this. I also agree with P-C that it's not depressing, but at the same time for parts of it I did find it some sort of combination of horrifying, terrifying, and incredibly stressful in a way that I really felt in my gut. The escape scene certainly being the stand-out on that front.

Stressful as it was, though, I loved the escape scene because I thought Donoghue did such a good job of conveying the fear and confusion Jack was experiencing. The experience of reading it was, for me, like one of those dreams where you're being chased by something mysterious but can't get your feet under you to run, or when you do try to run it's like slogging through deep water and you can't really move, and everything's sort of fuzzy and you just can't focus. Er...I don't know if that sort of dream is common, but I used to have them sometimes when I was a kid.

[ethanvahlere]

I never read A Visit from the Goon Squad, but I did read another Egan book, The Invisible Circus. It's about a teenage girl in the late 70's trying to retrace the steps of her dead older sister, who was a hippie until, disillusioned by the way the country turned, went to Europe and joined a terrorist group. I had some problems with it - which I can't really get into detail about without giving things away - but it's an interesting, non-judgmental look at the time. It's also much better than the movie (which starred Jordana Brewster as the main character, Cameron Diaz as the older sister, and Christopher Eccleston as Diaz's boyfriend).

And I liked The Shipping News, for what it was (it's also much better than the movie).

[thetheatremouse]

I love when you read books because it has consistently meant I will then go read and SUPER ENJOY (well, the ones you enjoyed at least...I haven't read any of the disappointing-for-Polter-Cow books after you did).

[spectralbovine]

Yay for enjoying books that I enjoy!

[thetheatremouse]

So I finally read this, and I sort of disagree about it not being depressing because Jack isn't depressed. I found it incredibly depressing: fascinating, stressful, completely engaging, but also super massively depressing.

The narrative in many ways reminded me of Flowers for Algernon and I really love that because it felt like a very true sense of the world because it was so completely from one character's perspective, and highlighting the characters ability, or inability to understand or interpret what's going on around him AND when he knows he's not understanding but not sure why or how or what to do about it... it's just heart crushing