It was a dark and stormy night when Mary Crane, exhausted and at the end of her rope, glimpsed the unlit neon sign for the Bates Motel. She was eager for a hot shower and a bed, and the manager seemed nice, if a little odd....
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From AudioFile
Regardless of your age, it's likely that you've viewed the famous shower scene from the Alfred Hitchcock movie PSYCHO, or its remake. This is the book that inspired the thriller and introduced Norman Bates, the seemingly mild-mannered manager of the Bates Motel, where madness lurks. Paul Garcia turns in a strong performance as the twisted villain. As Bates, Garcia can be childlike and simple or harsh and threatening--and just strange enough to keep you wondering. He's much less demonstrative with regard to most of the other characters, especially the potential victim, Mary Crane. His portrayal of Sam and Lila, the town's storekeepers is especially weak. Still, Norman as played by Garcia is clearly the star here, and Garcia is top-notch as the character that counts the most. A.L.H. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A better performance than I thought possible,
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This review is from: Psycho (Library (Audio CD)
Nearly everyone knows the story of Psycho, of how a woman named Crane steals $40,000 from her employer and takes off to marry her boyfriend. A rainstorm causes her to make a wrong turn off the main highway, and she stops for the night at the one beacon of light on that deserted stretch, the Bates Motel, run by the unassuming mama's boy Norman Bates.
Bates himself has become an iconic figure, synonymous with the psychotic murderer and more often the source of parody than fear. So, how does one approach the original novel by author Robert Bloch with a fresh eye? Surprisingly, it is fairly simple: one cannot. If you have seen the classic film as directed by Alfred Hitchcock, you've experienced the story in its tightest form. Hitchcock and screenwriter Joseph Stefano delivered a very faithful adaptation, and if that is enough for you, so be it. But if you long for more depth of character, more insight into motive and history, and especially more internal monologue, then Psycho the novel is just the thing for you. Audiobook reader Paul Michael Garcia delivers a better performance than I thought possible, inhabiting all the characters fully. This allowed me to forget that I was listening to "Psycho" and just immerse myself in Bloch's world one more time -- almost, if I tried really hard, as if for the first time.
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