Great actor, terrible reader, kills classic

What didn’t you like about William Hurt’s performance?

His foreign accents are abominable. Even his performance of the main character is completely flat. Frankly, I didn't even finish listening because the accents were so distracting!

41 people found this helpful

Disappointed with narration

Wished I had read rather than listened. Very weak narration as compared to other audible books. Hemingway no problem.... Weak acting

35 people found this helpful

WORST preformance of an audio book! Ever!

Would you try another book from Ernest Hemingway and/or William Hurt?

Ernest Hemmingway - yes. William Hurt - never again.

Would you be willing to try another one of William Hurt’s performances?

No. No. No. Such a boing performance. I've read this story 2 times and thought I'd try listening to my (once) favorite story. Almost abandoned listening to the story multiple times. No tone change in the character's voice. It was like listening to a teenager tell a story he really doesn't want to tell. Monotone and boooreing!

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The story is fantastic.

Any additional comments?

If you're a fan of Ernest Hemmingway, stick to the printed version of this book and try For Whom the Bell Tolls in audio version.

19 people found this helpful

love Hemingway, not Hurt

I'm sorry but William Hurt hurts this novel. He does fine with the dialogue passages which makes sense i guess as an actor, but his voice and bored rendition of the narrative passages is just plain poor. At times as he's reading it seemed that he was seeing the text for the first time, his emphasis and inflection is off all over the place.

This is a great novel and I wish they would get the reading by Adams that Books on Tape had that I bought the cassettes of years ago. Much better reading. Adams did many of EH's novels and did them well, and though then I may have wished for variety in voices, I'd take those now.

Nice idea to have distinctive voices for EH, but you need some more dynamic readers, not ones that sound bored by the project. Donald Sutherland is a great actor, but a terrible reader of Old Man. Get the Charlton Heston versions of Old Man and Snows if you can and Scourby's reading of Macomber is awesome, Heston and Scourby are perfection.

36 people found this helpful

Utterly painful droning narration.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Insomniacs. People who unreservedly love William Hurt

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Sun Also Rises?

Giving up and turning the awful droning off.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of William Hurt?

I cant stay awake through the "Hurt" I realize there are all different tastes and people prefer different narrational styles. However William Hurt to my ears is so painfully flat, droning, and lacking any real character depth in his narration as to make this book listenable. I have had this book for over 6 months and have tried to listen to is many times without success. This is very rare for me to be unable to listen to a story (especially a well written story) due to the narrator. I have narrators I prefer not to listen to (Scott Brick) however I still managed to listen through a @40 hour book (The Company) multiple times in the years it has been in my library. This book however is possibly the first time in my @15 years as an Audible subscriber I can't manage to finish to a book I purchased. Hell I doubt I have managed to stay awake through more than the first couple of hours. As for who to read this story, I would say Campbell Scott. He did a fantastic job on For Whom the Bell Tolls. For me Campbell Scott just gets the Hemingway pacing, cool and tonality.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Hugely disappointed by the monotone narration. Such a waste of a good story and a credit.

Any additional comments?

Listen to the sample very carefully, It doesn't get any better and probably gets much worse. ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Can I get a refund for this wasted credit?

18 people found this helpful

Great story badly read.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Sun Also Rises to be better than the print version?

William Hurt's bizarre phrasing of the narrative portions was a Major distraction. His rendering of Spanish and French accents was very good, but Bret's English accent was truly bizarre.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Sun Also Rises?

The bullfights, beautifully, graphically, tragically described mirrored the encounters of the main characters, always coming closer to each other, to love or to fight, and then backing away, a tangled dance like that of matador and bull, dodging, feinting, charging and ending, not in death, but still with a sense of tragedy.

Would you be willing to try another one of William Hurt’s performances?

No. Not ever.

10 people found this helpful

Meh

Narrator seems unmotivated by the story and so was I. Not sure why this is a classic. Maybe better in text.

7 people found this helpful

Bravo Papa!

This is possibly the best audio book I have ever listened to. William Hurt's narration is masterful bordering on dramatization but never losing touch with the classic Hemingway prose. This is one of those rare books that I did not want to end. It is altogether possible I will listen to it again simply because it was such a pleasure.

33 people found this helpful

William Hurt captures 'The Lost Generation'

I have been a long-time Audible customer (and before that, Books on Tape . . . ). I have never written a review before, but was prompted to do so by the many scathing reviews of William Hurt's narration of this title. Let me just say, I strongly dissent -- and I say that as someone who is not a particular fan of Mr. Hurt as an actor. This book is, at its heart, a vivid portrait of "The Lost Generation," devastated by The Great War; disillusioned by the United States they found at home after the war; and now broken and adrift in a fog of alcohol as they wander about Europe. To my ears, Mr. Hurt's narration captures this morally exhausted mindset perfectly. He sounds world-weary, benumbed by all that has happened to him and his friends. Indeed, he seems exactly like I would expect Jake Barnes to sound if he were sitting across the bar at 2 AM, many empty bottles of wine sitting between us, as he tells me the story of his adventures with Lady Brett Ashley and the rest of his hard drinking, hard living crew. For anyone who admires this classic novel -- or who wants to experience it as I suspect Hemingway would have intended -- I highly recommend this audible version. And kudos to Mr. Hurt for truly bringing this tragic story to life in a way the mere reading the book never did for me.

6 people found this helpful

Awful reader.

Would you try another book from Ernest Hemingway and/or William Hurt?

Yes I would read another book by Ernest Hemingway, and no, I will never buy a book read by William Hurt. He was awful. I couldn't get past ch. 1.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I don't have one. I only got through chapter one because William Hurt was awful at the reading. He read so slow and deliberate; I couldn't stand it.

What didn’t you like about William Hurt’s performance?

I felt like he was reading to a Kindergartner. He read so slow and he enunciated too much. Even during dialogue, he didn't have any personality.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Sun Also Rises?

I don't know....didn't hear much.

Any additional comments?

I wish there were another version with another reader.

6 people found this helpful