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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Bring Back Blair Brown!, July 23, 2010
This review is from: Island Beneath the Sea CD (Audio CD)
In the past I have greatly enjoyed the audiobooks of Isabel Allende, narrated by Blair Brown. I have listened to Daughter of Fortune, Portrait in Sepia, Zorro, and Ines Of My Soul. It seemed to be the perfect blending of narrator and author.
I'm not sure why Blair Brown was dropped for Allende's latest novel, Island Beneath The Sea, but her talent is sorely missed here. Allende is pretty much top notch, though the story is a bit more soap opera than usual, meaning that the characters seem to go through a lot of plot without necessarily being motivated in that direction. Perhaps that's to show the victimization by circumstance of all of the characters by the institution of slavery? Perhaps.
Nevertheless it's quite entertaining, fast moving, well researched, and involving, though maybe not on the same level as Ines Of My Soul.
The real problem for me was the narration. The reader seemed to be reading the material for the first time. You could tell that the author was really trying to enunciate, but that just got in the way of the storytelling. And when she wasn't enunciating carefully, she ended up mumbling a bit, or dropping parts of words. My ears struggled quite a bit.
Ms. Merkerson sounds like she is reading a book, whereas Blair Brown sounds like she is telling a story. It makes all the difference. I give this four stars for the novel, and two and half for the narration.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
STRONG NARRATION OF AN UNFORGETTABLE STORY, June 30, 2010
This review is from: Island Beneath the Sea CD (Audio CD)
For fans of television's popular series Law & Order S. Epatha Merkerson is a familiar name. However, although her six year stay as Lt. Anita Van Buren on that program brought her many accolades, it is only a small part of her resume.
Raised in Detroit, Michigan, Merkerson was a dance major at Wayne State University until a friend asked her to come to attend the friend's drama class. It was there that she discovered what she truly wanted to do. So, after graduation she headed for New York City to carve out a career as an actress.
It was not too long before her gifts were recognized - she earned a Tony nomination for best actress for her role in The Piano Lesson as well as the Drama Desk Award and the Helen Hayes Award. Television and screen roles followed.
Many of us recall not only Merkerson's first-rate performances but her voice - a tad husky yet clear, resonant. Listeners will thoroughly enjoy her reading of Isabel Allende's spellbinding ISLAND BENEATH THE SEA.
Set in the French colony that will later become Haiti and using the revolt of 1804 plus several historical figures in her narrative the multi talented author relates the story of Zarite, called Tete. Her life is a mirror in which we see reflected the horrors of slavery, and the brutality of the lives endured by those who worked on the sugar cane plantations.
Tete is the mulatto daughter of a mother she never knew and a white sailor. When Toulouse Valmorain arrives in 1770 he intends that his visit will be brief. However, he inherits his father's vast holdings - plantations and hundreds of slaves. He buys Tete as his wife's slave little knowing how their lives will intertwine. Days are perilous during the slave revolt and although Tete hates her master she has borne him two children, so she escapes with him to New Orleans to protect her offspring.
It is there in an entirely different world that Tete attempts to create a life for herself.
As is her wont Allende has created complex, fascinating characters, unforgettable people whose lives have been caught up in situations not of their own doing. Tete' is a remarkable figure, struggling against almost insurmountable mores and odds.
- Gail Cooke
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Just An Observation, December 10, 2011
This review is from: Island Beneath the Sea CD (Audio CD)
I wanted to comment even before reading, that a poster commented that Halle Berry would be good as the actress in a movie.
Just looking at the beautiful cover, Thadi Newton(sp) comes to mind, the girl on the cover even resembles her. Now on to some great reading.
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