Comments:
3
I love the novel, but I've read it several times as part of my American studies degree (and the course in African-American writing) so we came to it with a lot of background. I can imagine a good narration will make it compelling, but it's powerful stuff, so I fully understand your comment about small sips.
I'm not naturally inclined toward literary fiction, and I never did any advanced studies in Lit, so I genuinely enjoy only a fraction of it, when it has that magical combination of story and writing and emotion and ideas that resonates with me. This one has it, but Joe Morton's performance adds an extra dimension. I still have the ebook checked out, and for some sections, where the flow of ideas is so dense that I want to go back and reflect on it, then I stop the audio and find the place in the text to re-read it.
Some books connect with us no matter what, and great literature can do that at many levels. I remember having some lively discussions when we studied it for a course on the Great American Novel at Mount Holyoke College. I was quite surprised that the professor had to explain to the students that a Communist Party had really existed in the US, and I noticed that a German student who was also studying in the US for a year was a puzzled as I was. I find it difficult to notice all the details when I'm listening to an audiobook, but I don't do it very often.
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