The Prague Sonata, Bradford Morrow, author; Christina Delaine, narrator
The novel piqued my interest because it was about a lost music manuscript from the time of the Holocaust. I read everything I can about that time, fiction and non-fiction.
Although the book may be a very good print read, as an audio, I found it lacking. The narrator over emotes and takes over the narrative with a slow and over emotional presentation, in a sexy voice that is totally inappropriate for something meant to be scholarly.
The author’s writing tends to the poetic and feels overdone with description and dialogue that seems extraneous and unnecessary much of the time. Had I not known the author was male, because of the flowery language, I would have thought it was stereotypical of a female author. On the positive side, there seemed to be a great deal of research devoted to this book, and that is very obviously commendable. Still, the information gets lost in the presentation by this narrator who reads facts as if they were written by Keats or a classical poet.
After listening to about half of the book, I realized that I was dreading it, each time I returned to it. Perhaps I will try the hard copy, because this was definitely a turn off. Water would boil faster than the tempo of the reading. The investigation into the manuscript seemed to promise more than was delivered.