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The Great Gatsby CD
Availability:
In Stock
Price:
$19.99
$11.44*
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| Part No: | 0060098910 |
| Manufacturer: | Caedmon |
| MFG Part: | |
| Customer Rating: | 3.5 / 5.0 |
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The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's portrait of the Jazz Age in all its decadence and excess, is, as editor Maxwell Perkins praised it in 1924, "a wonder." It remains one of the most widely read, translated, admired, imitated and studied twentieth-century works of American fiction. This deceptively simple work, Fitzgerald's best known, was hailed by critics as capturing the spirit of the generation. In Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald embodies some of America's strongest obsessions: wealth, power, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. The recording includes a selection of letters written by Fitzgerald to his editor, Maxwell Perkins, his agent, Harold Ober, and friends and associates, including Willa Cather, H.L. Mencken, John Peale Bishop and Gertrude Stein. Performed by Tim Robbins
| Robbins' does a great job, awesome Tom Buchanan | 2010-02-13 | 4 / 5 |
| I've listened to Robbins version of this fabulous book twice, and i'm relistening to parts of it again. I think he does a great job of emphasizing the key points. His Tom Buchanan is exceptional. And since Tom Buchanan is a key figure in the book, for him to ace this character really helps this reading shine. Robbins also does a good job bringing to life Fitzgerald's exceptional dialogue skills. To write good dialogue is hard. I'm amazed how modern Fitzgerald's characters sound, how they talk to one another like people i know and talk with each other. I'm not seeing much difference between the wealthy of 1920 and those of 2000.
There are two scenes that show how well Robbin's gets this book. In the key confrontation scene between Tom and Gatsby at the hotel, Gatsby says he wants to tell Tom something. Robbin's voice conveys Tom's welcoming this challenge, even enjoying it.
Compare that to Redford's movie version, where Bruce Dern says it, then pleads with Daisy to take him (Tom) back. In the book, Tom doesn't plead to Daisy. Robbin's portrayal is more effective than the movie.
A second scene happens on the drive drive to the hotel. Tom, Nick & Jordan are driving, and Tom says "I've been looking into this Gatsby fella." And Jordan jokes "What, you hired a medium?" And tom says "What? What? A medium?! No. Like i said, i hired an investigator." Robbins portrays how an irritated alpha-male would sound at such a flighty, feminine joke. (You've got to hear it, but it cements Tom's character as a strong alpha-male.)
Robbin's has a lot of moments where he makes the dialogue effective.
I gave 4 stars because a few times, he mixes up the voices, which makes it confusing about who just spike. Also, the female voices are so similar, so he doesn't delve into the character differences between Daisy and Jordan. But all in all, recommended. |
| Don't listen to this in a car. | 2010-01-15 | 2 / 5 |
| | We love to listen to audio books in our car which is reasonably new and fairly quiet on the road. I've read the other reviews and agree with the comments about Tim Robbins. The biggest problem we had was that his volume would trail off at the end of just about every sentence. I was constantly turning the volume up and down so we could hear the words but not get blasted out. Luckily I have a volume control on my steering wheel so I didn't have to reach over to the radio every minuet. The problem could have been fixed by a good sound guy but it seems that the gain was set only on one level. If you used ear phones our plaid it on your home stereo it would be OK. |
| Competent interpretations of complex characters | 2009-11-07 | 4 / 5 |
| | While some listeners/readers have objected to Tim Robbins' rendering of this modern classic, I found it quite listenable (?). It's eviden that Robbins has taken voice articulation in his acting training (something you wouldn't necessarily decipher from his acting roles). The central characters he renders distinctively, and that is no easy task. Some non-actors can do it well; some actors can do it well. Many actors, and non-actors don't do it well. As part of the intrigue of the book is the difficulty in really getting a hold on just who these characters/people are, an interpretation that is competent should be good enough. To the point, in a letter to Max Perkins, Fitzgerald admits not being able to fulfill his obligation as a writer in rendering satisfactory emotional threads for his characters. |
| like a sad but magical melody | 2009-09-12 | 5 / 5 |
| It's easy to see why The Great Gatsby has become such a classic. The plot is simple, yet Fitzgerald's writing is so lyrical that I felt like the story was layered with deeper meanings and symbolisms that maybe I wasn't quite getting. Perhaps I need to listen to it again.
Robbins' narration is excellent; he gives each person their own distinct voice which fills out and complements Fitzgerald's characterization. And Fitzgerald's narrative style is so timeless that it's hard to believe this was actually written over 80 years ago. It is this timeless quality that makes a true classic.
The book reminds me strongly of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's -- a outsider looking back and telling the story of the brief and magical time that he crossed paths with dazzling but tragic people, the simplicity of the plot, the symbolisms and deeper meanings. Perhaps Capote was more than a little influenced by Fitzgerald's earlier work -- ?? |
| tragic story, bizarre reading | 2009-08-15 | 3 / 5 |
| Embarrassingly, I have never read The Great Gatsby. Listening to this audio book was my introduction to the story and I really enjoyed it. The cold casual demeanor of those born into wealth contrasted against the desperate grasping of a man who wasn't and the sarcastic disdain from the narrator for the whole of it is one of the finest collection of emotions and characters I have come to know from a book in a long time.
As for the reading by Tim Robbins, it was bizarre. He has a lovely voice and the prose was beautiful when read by him from time to time. But his character voices were weird and inconsistent. He stumbled, mispronounced, stuttered. I was just surprised by that since I expected something different.
The audio quality is superb, no feedback, no background noise or saliva sounds (if you listen to a lot of audio books you know how distracting the smacking can be). the volume is consistent. Tim Robbins and Robert Sean Leonard's voices are well recorded and natural sounding. Robert Sean Leonard is the cancer doctor on the TV show House if you ever watch that. He is not a voice actor for the story but does read some of Fitzgerald's letters after the story concludes. His reading is very good and his voice is great.
If you enjoyed the book I think you might be disappointed by the voice acting by Robbins. Despite his performance I really did enjoy listening to this so I still give it a more positive review than a negative one, hence 3 stars. |
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