I have heard Leigh Stein on podcasts and I’ve listened to the excellent Self Care, and I really like her, and the trajectory of her life.
Outstanding memoir. I could have done without the jarring Jay McInerney-ish switch to 2nd person late in the novel. But, it’s short & artsy & forgiveable, and doesn’t diminish the overall work of a thoroughly likeable person relaying some patently painful experiences.
UNNNfortunately.. we must discuss the narration. It was absolutely atrocious. Just for the record, I don’t usually give much thought to the narrator. Anything passable tends to be good enough for me. But this was next-level bad. Multiple times I almost gave up, even though I was thoroughly engrossed in the story.
I just don’t understand what this narrator was trying for. Some of the time it was this creepy, sultry cutsieness, wholly out of step with the material. But more often (concurrently, really, and throughout) we were treated to this weirdly clipped tone, with consonant endings abruptly clipped, in what I can only assume the narrator felt was a means to “get at” her vision of the protagonist, which is apparently that of a ditzy millennial (which Stein is not). To call this voice an “affectation” is extreme understatement. There’s no way this person talks anything like this in regular life. Seriously, what is she trying to do here? “Lookie here, I’m a young, stupid, cute chick!”?? This person should not be in the business of narrating audiobooks.
I may be being too harsh, and if so I’m sorry. Maybe it’s my ears.. listen for yourself (the story is worth it!) .. I’d be interested to see if anyone else gets this vibe. To my ears, the distraction-factor of this voice was just off the charts.
It’s ironic too, because Stein’s other Audible offering has perhaps the finest narration I’ve heard in an audiobook (by 3 women, sharing duties reading the 3 protagonists).
Maybe Leigh should have read this herself. Anyone could’ve done better than the affectation-fest I just heard. Honestly, I would’ve preferred Elmer Fudd over this narrator.
But, despite that… great memoir!