I was looking forward to reading this food memoir of Stanley Tucci. I borrowed it off Libby (audiobook format) from the library because it was read in the author's own voice so I thought that would add to it. Unfortunately, I ended up dnf'ing (did not finish) the book, turning it off about half way through. But before I go into why I Did Not Finish the book, what I did like it was the joy of the connection of the author's family to their Italian roots and food. That was so interesting. And the author shares some of his family's Italian recipes that are talked about in the book. I enjoyed hearing about their celebrations and everyday meals and the foods that made them memorable. I enjoyed reading about how the author's love of food developed through this life. But, to me, some of his narration fell flat in the audio version. For example: in relating conversations the author was reading in a flat voice "My mother: "what she said". My grandmother: "response" My mother: "what she said" My grandmother: "response". You get what I'm saying? While that may work in the written version, in the audio it had me rolling my eyes back in my head as it went on for some time as the author relayed the whole conversation between the participants in this manner. These kinds of conversation reenactments happened several times and he lost me with them. The other reason that finally caused me to turn the book off halfway through was the more and more frequent use of the f-bomb which is something I do not enjoy in my reading, much less so in audio. While the use of it wasn't in the beginning of the book at all, it started to show up very occasionally and then it's use continued to snowball significantly as the audiobook went on. When the author literally screamed it at me while talking about Carbonara, I was done. I think maybe in this instance the physical copy version might have served me better as in some cases I am able to more easily skip over the swearing and being f-bombed audibly on a regular basis definitely affected my enjoyment of the book. I may pick up the physical copy at some point but for now it has put a distaste in my mouth for the book, which makes me kind of sad. And it made me sad to give it a two star rating on goodreads because of this. According to goodreads one star means "I didn't like it". I gave it a 2 star which means "it was ok" because I was enjoying the stories centered around food. Quite a conundrum for me because in my mind if I DNF'd it it should really not have a star rating but that option is not available on goodreads. It's for this reason I really do hate to give a rating to a memoir. For those who don't think twice about being f-bombed in their reading, the book has been getting lots of great reviews.
Because I was half way through I am counting it as read toward my goodreads goal.
4 comments:
That's sad--I wish people would stop using the f-bomb so freely and easily as they do these days. I agree, I don't like it in any format, but it's especially jarring to hear it rather than read it.
That's weird about the "response" thing. I wonder if he thought he needed to designate that in the audiobook so we could more easily keep up with who was saying what. But most narrators distinguish characters in a conversation by voice inflections. As an actor, he should have been able to do this easily. If it's that way in the written book, I am surprised an editor let it pass.
I think you've spent enough time on this book that you deserve to count it on your Goodreads list! I enjoyed the review, and the food part sounds very appealing.
Conversations and dialogue is a big reason that I only listen nonfiction informational books as audiobooks. With fiction and books that have dialogue, I find it hard to keep everyone straight. I don't like a lot of F-bombs in books either. I appreciate your review of this book but I think I will skip this one.
Not one that appeals to me at all. I don't care WHO the person is (celebrity, non celebrity, politician, royalty etc) the only thing that the use of the F word shows is a total and complete lack of class. I've brought books back to the library and stopped watching certain movies if my eyes and ears are inundated with the F word or the Lords name taken in vain. It's just simply NO CLASS.
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