Commentary/review

I was fortunate enough to be unfamiliar with that book (I tried reading it a long time ago, much too early). Hemingway is one of these authors who can make you quite emotional, sometimes for his position on the killing of animals, sometimes for the devilish quality of his writing. He certainly wrote uncannily well.

This rendition is very special. Michael Gandolfini is a young and successful movie actor (now 24yo). I do not watch movies and did not immediately recognize his name. At first, I thought this narrator was a talented amateur. Perhaps he managed to obtain permission to read a classic and it turned out so well that it ended up on streaming apps? His narration was youthful and for that reason – very fitting. Even his errors in pronunciation of certain foreign words have an endearing quality. The Sun Also Rises is about young people after all.

I was enchanted with Gandolfini’s energy, earnestness and imagination. Impressions he allocated to each of the characters sound natural and full of life. Most of the dialogues in the book are between drunk people and Gandolfini managed it very well. Despite the rather heavy subjects the book deals with, the audiobook has a light, colorful aspect. I strongly recommend this production to everyone.

Lovely cover, looking like stained glass. However, it does not fit this special rendition too well. The audiobook is creative, light, improvised while the cover is rigid, overly simplified, too perfect. The subjects – bull fights, parties, travel – is usually pictured by dynamic, imperfect images. I would prefer some type of oil painting with strong, imperfect lines here.

Cover Photo by Daniel Lloyd Blunk-Fernández on Unsplash