The Berlin Wall

Makes a dark chapter "enjoyable"

If you could sum up The Berlin Wall in three words, what would they be?

A big story

What did you like best about this story?

It covered all facets and not just personal or diplomatic but intertwined the stories to give a really complete future. So you learned about the effect of the Wall on people like many histories but also how it was planned and then executed At first I wasn't sure about the narrator, but as I went along his narration really helped the story along.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good Book, horrible "voice acting"

The book itself is good and the subject very interesting. In part, the narrating is quite good. But for some inexplicable reason the narrator resorts to absolutely terrible voice acting whenever reading quotes. I suppose it is meant to be engaging, bit the fake German and Russian accents that is performed is like nails across a cosmic blackboard. Bone chillingly bad. Nikita Khrushchev at times sounds more like a drunk Scotsman than Russian. All the Germans sound like mad scientists straight out of Dr. Strangelove. It is stereotypical beyond belief. This really shames an otherwise fine performance and a good book. I would not have bought it, had I known, and I find it hard to listen to. Please stick to just straight reading in the future or at least provide a warning prior to purchase, so we can avoid spending good money on this kind of "voice acting".

Narrator lost his place?

The book is a fascinating history of the Berlin Wall. I would have rated higher except for several places where the narrator repeated the passage he just completed reading. I’d think that this could be edited so this would not have been presented. Could have finished the book a couple of minutes sooner!

Fascinating Story with Auditory Flaws

I've always found Berlin and its history fascinating. It's one of those cities that doesn't get the recognition it deserves and always fades behind the flash and glitter of cities like New York or Paris. However, if they took the time to explore a little deeper, and uncover the warm glow of Berlin, they would see it's a rich and beautiful city with an extraordinary but sad history. The Berlin Wall is one of those stories.
Like most stories, it has a happy ending but it's roots take place in the rubble of a miscalculated war, where only hunger and lost hopes could be found. And from that rubble, we are taken on a journey that stretches twenty-eight years (1961-1989): where liberators act more like occupiers and claw at the remains of a ruined city, where the belief that the human will and want for something better could be squashed and through a repressive regime, host a 96 mile wall making prisoners of its citizens. Where people cling to hope and are willing to risk their lives for freedom and in the end, break though to find that freedom.
I think this book would be a fabulous addition to any library or supplemental study, as it subtly shows the hypocritical ideologies of any extreme (Nazi's vs Communist's, as in the end, they wind up behaving like each other), and how the human will is a force to be reckoned with and admired.
My rating takes issue with the audiobook, not the overall story itself, which tends to focus on the early years of the Wall, and flutters over 70s and 80s - the fall of the Wall (the last three chapters).
It's not the narrator - the narrator has a nice, clear, strong voice. At first I was a little taken aback when he did the accents but after awhile got used to them. My issue comes in the form that I don't think the producer...or whoever is in charge of production, listened to the final product. There are maybe five or six passages where the narrator repeats himself. For instance when LBJ arrives in Berlin, the narrator said a sentence, then there's a one-or-two second pause and then he repeats the same sentence and continues on with the paragraph.
When it happened the first time, I found it a little jarring, at first I thought there was a glitch and then corrected itself but when it happened again...and again...and again, it made the audible-hosted audiobooks seem a bit unprofessional, especially since this has also happened with another audible audiobook, - Churchill's Secret War - (Mukerjee).

Bad transfer from CD

Great story. Bad transfer from CD as various sentences and phrases would repeat themselves. In one case the entire name and title of the book was repeated. (I presume that this was were the end of one CD meet the beginning of the next CD.)

Good book so so reading.

Book had several repeats in the performance. Loved the depth of the authors knowledge of east Berlin. Other than recording issue it was worth the time

Excellent, intelligent, well-written book

What about Daniel Philpott’s performance did you like?

Unlike another reviewer, I wasn't bothered by Philpott's mimicking the speech of various politicians. It made the book clearer for listening purposes. The pronunciation was largely good and it always helps that the reader speaks with an English accent. American narrators a. Are often nasal and b. Mispronounce foreign words more

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No but it was amusing at times in a cynical way

Any additional comments?

Good book, well worth reading

Marred only by the Narrator's Affectations

If you could sum up The Berlin Wall in three words, what would they be?

History worth knowing

Who was your favorite character and why?

It's a work of non-fiction. The question is inappropriate.

Would you be willing to try another one of Daniel Philpott’s performances?

No. His attempts to apply fake (and poorly executed) English, German and Russian accents to the quoted passages detracted mightily from the book. It's a piece of non-fiction, not a community theater stage play.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

It's a work of non-fiction. This question is inappropriate.

Any additional comments?

The author has done an excellent job of telling the story of the Berlin Wall, providing considerable background that I was unaware of, even though I was born in Berlin in 1954. I expected the book to start in 1960 or thereabouts, but to my surprise it started long before then. The historical context added greatly to the story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about Berlin, its politics, WW2, the Cold War, East Germany's many deceptions, and the contributions of key historical figures. Kudos to Mr. Taylor ... and thanks!

2 of 4 people found this review helpful

Good overall but could be slightly shorter

I found this a very interesting and well narrated history of the Berlin Wall which did a good job of capturing the state of the world at the time and the global significance of Berlin. I did feel however that the book could have been made a bit tighter by not repeating quite as many stories of escapes which became slightly less interesting as more and more were discussed.

A worthy listen.

TEAR. DOWN. THIS. WALL

I remember where I was when I heard The Wall was coming down. Do you? It was unbelievable - I still get goose-bumps when I see the footage; David Hasselhoff in the light-bulb jacket excluded.

Even more unbelievable then The Wall coming down, was it going up at all in the first place!!! I was born about 10 years later, and as a child I never really gave it any thought. I knew there was “a wall in Germany” but that was about it. When I was a teenager and learned it was built in 1961 I was astounded! That’s “modern times” I thought to myself, and how do you split up a major city with roads, and telephone lines, and trains, and a connected infrastructure!!! It’s so preposterous, yet it happened!!

And of course, who can forget Reagan’s famous commanding speech: TEAR. DOWN. THIS. WALL. Almost 25 years later it’s still powerful!

I am a bit disappointed with this book because I found it rather complicated to follow. I’m not really sure what I was expecting, but it goes into so much “political chess” that I lost track of who was who, who worked in what government department, what agency was in charge of what... and the alphabet soup of titles!!!!... forget it! I am more interested in things like the escapes attempts and how they were orchestrated, the culture and the climate of the city when The Wall was up and what daily life was like in the GDR from the perspective of the citizens, not the politicians.

The first third of the book was all about the history of Germany - interesting, but I could have skipped all of that. Overall I think I would have preferred something a little more concise; the book was too heavy on names and dates for me. If you want detail, you’ll love this book but I don’t need to know that this happened on the morning of July 3 1942 and that happened on June 8 1959 and this happened on January 6 1960 etc etc etc I am not going to remember ANY of those dates! I want a rundown of what happened, not the nitty-gritty of the exact moment in time a document was signed. Sure it’s all important information, but for me it’s too much detail.

I’m roughly 80% done with this book, and then I am going to read “Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall” by Anna Funder when I am done. I think it will give me a little more of what I am looking for... I hope!

2 of 5 people found this review helpful