Novel great, reader not so much.

House Made of Dawn is gorgeous, lush, and a bit of a challenge if you are listening to it without the text in hand. I finally stopped listening altogether (returned the audio book) and finished reading it in hard copy. The narrator is a good reader, but altogether unsuited to this work. He reads fast through every part, whether he’s reading the words of a guilty priest’s journal or a sermon by the Priest of the Sun which is, in my view, the centerpiece of the novel and a passionate paen to language and the power of the word. These passages demand that the speed and rhythm of the written words be respected in the spoken. The descriptions of landscape which are so integral to the novel need to be delivered at a speed that permits the listener to create them in her mind. Also, the text follows several characters, often all in the same chapter, and the switch from one character to a different person is indicated by extra spaces. A narrator needs to pause and it indicate with his voice that there is a change. A skilled narrator anticipates the reader’s “blindness” and creates cues. The Caedmon version of the novel opens with an introduction by the author. His voice is deep and sure and measured. He reads his prose as poetry. When I bought the audiobook, the author was listed as narrator together with Mr.Dennis. Prospective buyers should be aware that only the introduction is read by the author — the novel is Mr.Dennis. I would love to hear an audio version of this book in Mr. Momaday’s voice. This version just does not meet the performance level that the book demands.

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Odd choice for narrator

Strange choice for the narrator. He didn’t really seem to understand what he was reading most of the time.

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A Masterpiece

The Foreward alone is an absolute gem. The story and the telling of it are on a literary pinnacle. I’ve listened three times and I’m not done. Enjoy!

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A Non-Linear Plot Buried Beneath A Thick Layer of Poetry

This is a beautifully written, poetic story. The plot is non-linear. I enjoyed it—but the narrative never got its claws in me. I never got fully engrossed.

I feel like this is a book that would take a reader like me several readings to fully appreciate and understand.

There are several Audible reviews that criticize the narrator. I would like to add that those criticisms are bunk. The narrator is fantastic.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Very poor narration became a distraction.

I specifically got this book on audiobook because I thought it would be better to hear the poetic writing than just reading it. Unfortunately, this narrator was not right for this book. His reading was flat. He had trouble pronouncing longer words, and added and left out syllables at times. There are many Spanish person and place-names and the author's pronunciation of them was clumsy and frankly wrong at times. These problems were so distracting that I could not focus on the story, much less the poetry. I quit the audiobook and will read the book in print.

The Foreword was wonderful, with vivid biographical details that brought the subject and characters to life. It was poetry, and was read by the author rather than the narrator.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

hard to connect with the character

struggled to finish. the storyline was flat. loved the descriptions of nature. did not love the flat descriptions of the murder and sex. the story tends to get lost among the descriptive text of mundane things.

More like a poetic journal than a novel

The writing is beautiful. The descriptions of South Western American landscapes and mid-1900s Native American life are beautiful. But, the story reads like a rambling, poetic journal that makes it hard to connect with the lightly developed characters. I’m sure Momaday’s poetry is lush and beautiful.