OCT 2017
AUDIO BOOK REVIEWS
by Jonathan Lowe
ANNIHILATION
by
Jeff Vandermeer. Plot: Area X has been cut
off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature
has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization.
The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine,
Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass
suicide; the third expedition in a hail of gunfire
as its members turned on one another. The members
of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of
their former selves, and within weeks, all had died
of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff
VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth
expedition. The group is made up of four women: an
anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de
facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their
mission is to map the terrain, record all observations
of their surroundings and of one another, and, above
all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself. They
arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers?they
discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms
that surpass understanding?but it's the surprises
that came across the border with them and the secrets
the expedition members are keeping from one another
that change everything. Narrated by Carolyn
McCormick.
Bottom
Line: Don’t let a few other bad reviews dissuade
you. One I read said it “fell flat,” and
another “after this, I do not care one single
iota about anything this author has written.”
Right. Well, it won a Nebula Award for Best Novel,
a Shirley Jackson Award, a USA Today Favorite Beach
Read, a Salon Best Audiobook of the Year. Then it
was praised by Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly,
Booklist, and Kirkus Reviews. And it will be a major
movie in February 2018, starring Natalie Portman,
directed by Alex Garland, who wrote and directed Ex
Machina, which made Alicia Vikander a star. The dark
side of reviews you see everywhere is that they truly
cannot be trusted. |
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Next,
A LEGACY OF SPIES by John le Carré.
Plot: Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple
of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise
known as the Circus, is living out his old age on
the family farmstead on the south coast of Brittany
when a letter from his old Service summons him to
London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back
to claim him. Intelligence operations that were once
the toast of secret London, and involved such characters
as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley and Peter
Guillam himself, are to be scrutinized by a generation
with no memory of the Cold War and no patience with
its justifications. Interweaving past with present
so that each may tell its own intense story, John
le Carré spins it into a single plot as ingenious
and thrilling as the two predecessors on which it
looks back: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
The story resonates with tension, humor and moral
ambivalence, le Carré and his narrator
Peter Guillam present the reader with a legacy
of unforgettable characters old and new. John le Carré
recently appeared on 60 Minutes. The novel is narrated
by actor Tom Hollander. Hollander has appeared in
the films Pirates of the Caribbean, Mission Impossible
Rogue Nation, and About Time. He supports a variety
of charitable causes in innovative ways. In 2006 he
ran his first race for the Childline Crisis hotline,
and in 2007 ran for the Teenage Cancer Trust. He’s
also a long-time supporter of the Helen and Douglas
House in Oxford, which provides Hospice care for children,
and continues to support charitable organizations
by contributing readings and other appearances throughout
the year. Hollander is a patron of BIFA, the British
Independent Film Awards, and has supported the cause
of young writers for the British stage. For this reason
alone, I recommend it. But mainly because the narrator
brings the suspenseful text alive, employing subtle
nuance. A pro, don’t you know.
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Finally, as a special treat, an interview with Diane
Clehane, author of IMAGINING DIANA,
also on audio, imagining what would have happened
had Princess Diana lived. Clehane has served as a
commentator on the British royal family for CNN, Access
Hollywood, and CBS News. She has written about celebrities
and pop culture for Vanity Fair, Forbes, People, Vogue.com
and Adweek.com, and she is a U.S. correspondent for
British Heritage. In her weekly "Wednesdays at
Michael's" column, Clehane chronicles the Manhattan
media scene. Imagining Diana begins on August 31,
1997 in a Paris hospital. As the world awaits news
of Diana's fate following the paparazzi-fueled crash,
Diana awakens from a coma to discover that she has
survived the wreckage, but with her famous face—the
most photographed in the world— forever changed.
Based on actual events, what ensues is an elegant,
riveting account of Diana's storied past and imagined
future as an icon, lover, and mother of a future king.
On audio the book is introduced by the author, and
narrated by Stina Nielsen. Would
appeal to anyone who follows the Royals or who admires
Diana and wants to imagine a better end for her. The
narrator? Nails it.
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Jonathan
Lowe: There's much background on Diana, and
of course speculation about what her motives were,
played out in fiction after her death. Wondering what
the biggest guess was, besides the fact that she wanted
to live her own life and create an honorable life
for her boys amid all the glitz and paparazzi.
Diane Clehane: I have been writing about
the British royal family for a long time and did extensive
research for the book. As someone who has written
about Diana for two decades, I felt very confident
about the path I imagined for her had she lived. The
biggest mystery was if she would have remarried. What
I did in the book is directly related to a relationship
she really had with Teddy Forstmann. I believe the
greatest happiness Diana would have found later in
her life would have come from the relationship she
had with her sons -- and their wives and children
-- and her work as a global humanitarian figure.
Jonathan: Did Diana really not want
to go to Paris, making it a jealousy play with no
intention of a serious relationship with Dodi?
Diane:
When Diana met Dodi, she had just had a devastating
break-up with Hasnat Khan. I believe she was trying
to make Hasnat jealous by allowing herself to be photographed
on the yacht in Dodi's arms. That said, she was enjoying
herself on that vacation because Dodi was focused
solely on her. She found him very attentive, but when
the holiday was over she was ready to go back to London.
I don't think their romance would have lasted for
a whole host of reasons -- the fact that William didn't
care for the Fayed jet-set lifestyle being among them.
Jonathan:
The agent in
New York looking to exploit Diana. Was there a specific
agent in mind, perhaps based on one you encountered
in real life? Or is she a total fiction, like Meryl
playing a fashion snob in The Devil Wears Prada?
Diane:
The agent Lois is a composite
character based on many people I've known in the media,
publishing and entertainment fields. I thought it
would be fun to make her a larger-than-life presence.
Jonathan:
Was
Diana ever in love with Charles, and vice-versa, in
your opinion? Who cheated first, and why?
Diane:
Diana
was definitely in love with Charles when they married.
She was all of 20 years old and very much believed
in love and romance. Charles told friends he hoped
he could 'grow to love Diana' and he did, I believe,
in his own way. Unfortunately for Charles and Diana,
it was an arranged marriage because he was being pressured
to find a suitable (read: aristocratic and virginal)
bride. Unfortunately, Charles never really let go
of his emotional attachment to Camilla. Later it became
an open secret among palace insiders that he had resumed
his affair. Ironically, Diana and Charles were starting
a new stage of their relationship post-divorce when
she was killed. I believe they would have grown closer
as friends in later years as they do in my book. |
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