This one was available through my local library.
I began reading Crime and Punishment because it was my Classics Spin winner. I believe I started reading the book in March. I finished it this week. (Hurray!!!) I celebrated by listening to an abridged audio book of it. I often award myself by either watching a film adaptation or listening to an audio adaptation. This one was a treat!
Crime and Punishment definitely comes across as a psychological drama--or thriller. I'm not sure "thriller" is the right word. But I'm not positive it's the wrong word either. DRAMA is the perfect word however.
The book keeps you very much inside the head of the narrator--Raskolnikov. That is not unusual in and of itself. But Raskolnikov is a tortured soul. And his inner voice comes across as quite mad or tortured throughout the production. In some ways I think the audio DRAMA does a better job of conveying this even more so than the book itself. (Though it is abridged.)
My review of the book.
I also listened to ORSON WELLES "War of the Worlds" Radio Broadcast. October 30, 1938. Mercury Theatre on the Air. 1 hour.
War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by H.G. Wells. It was directed by Orson Welles; it also starred Orson Welles. Did listeners really hear the radio broadcast and panic? Maybe. Maybe not. I am slightly skeptical that anyone could hear it and be fooled...for long. For one thing, I believe it says at least two to three times that it is a radio drama. Second, you'd have to REALLY suspend your disbelief to think that all of the action and drama was happening in real time. It spans WEEKS. I think the panic element of it has become a dramatic legend that is part of our culture. True or not, people may enjoy believing it. Sensational drama sells. And the idea of "the public" "the masses" going crazy is certainly sensational. I'm not convinced either way in terms of if the panic was "real" or a fabrication that grows larger and larger as the story is told and retold.
© 2018 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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