Not the best

There was elements of this book I enjoyed but it was an odd story. I think this maybe one of these books that is ruined by most of the narration. Some of the accents was v poor and although the male narration was much better he could take huge breaths at times.

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great main characters

odd supporting characters with quite a lot of time spent on them, so quite a slow development. narration good, butsome accents terrible

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I loved parts of it, but hated parts of the narration.

I love the way Joseph O’Connor writes and some of the Dublin sayings had me laughing & chuckling throughout the book. But the narrator with the American accent was the worst I have ever heard. Almost comical at times. The male narrator was excellent. Parts of the story were so beyond belief. The aviation part for example was so strange & inaccurate that I honestly thought it was a dream sequence and the ‘Quagmire’ from the Simpsons was flying the plane. But I stuck with it to the end. I wouldn’t recommend this audio version.

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not his best

I usually love O Connors work , but not this one. The American narrator does the worst Irish accent I've ever heard ! would have been better if she didn't try .

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Ok story but narration had one huge holes

The story is not too bad but the narration really really messed with it. A good narrator delivers the story but gets out of the way, and in this book the male narrator kinda achieved that but the lady who voiced the the female part was poor on an unbelievable level. I got the feeling her dad must’ve financed the project or there was some other inexplicable reason for her participation. She’s clearly not suited to this profession. Her moronic Irish accent and mispronunciation of standard place names made me want to rush into the street and do things I’d regret forever. Even when she voiced American accents, her fake hipster croak was really annoying.
I love Joseph O’Connor as an author but feel this narrator ruined the central female characters part.

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1 person found this helpful

GOOD STORY SPOILT BY POOR NARRATION.

Inspector Martin Aitken's life is a mess. He's divorced, his career's in chaos, and the last thing he needs this Christmas Eve is a strange woman collapsed on a Dublin street. Ellen Donnelly is a woman on a mission, coming to Ireland to find her mother and escape her marriage. Dr Milton Amery, a New York plastic surgeon, is her unfaithful husband. The three are beginning new journeys, each of which lead to Inishowen.
This is a very well paced and interesting character driven story. It is about identity, the history of Ireland, the oppression of the Catholic Church and how it ruled so much of people's lives in the past. It touches on family and mortality. The themes are epic in what is a very personal story. However all of this is let down quite badly by very poor narration, the accents are all over the place, especially the female narrator and there is no difference between the tone of the characters speaking so you really do not get a sense of those characters. It is a shame and hopefully soon it will be redone.

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A lot of unfulfilled promise

Ridiculously over-elaborated plot, with some direly unsuccessful and inappropriate comic interludes. But the amount of withheld information keeps it going most of the time. As some other reviewers have pointed out, there are some lazy mistakes in the pronunciation of place-names - including the title place. How could anyone with any kind of ear, or sense of language, think it was ‘In-ISH-o -wen’’ rather than INNISH -Owen’? Similarly with the musical quotations: all of them were from very well-known songs, including ‘Galway Bay’, ‘The Croppy Boy’ and ‘A policeman’s lot is not a happy one’. So why were they rendered, tunelessly and flatly, to no recognisable melody?

There has been some laziness on the part of the performers, and much greater laziness on the part of the editor.

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The narration is very annoying.

I could not finish the book due to the annoying narration, and in particular the dreadful Irish and American accents by the narrator. Plus if character acting is not their skill set, narrators should stick to reading the story with normal voice and appropriate inflections.

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Painful narration.

I don't normally write reviews but I felt I had to for this as the female narration was so dreadful. My goodness she's obviously never heard an Irish person speak if that's what she thinks the accents are like. It was painful to listen to. The male narrator was ok but was also pretty bad at the US accents. The story itself started off well but went very downhill about halfway through. Very disappointing compared to his other works.

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Good story ruined by narration

I really enjoyed the start of the novel but once the second narrator began the atmosphere and engagement in the story was gone for me. The female narrator could not do the Irish accent and frankly ruined the whole experience. I recommend reading this book rather than this listening experience. Disappointing

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