Interesting

Well narrated and written. Even though it was a little over my head at times with its references to philosophy and literature, it still kept my interest pretty well. It painted a realistic picture of greed and how it affects entire families.

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7 people found this helpful

Addictive!

This is not a book of high literature but material for the afternoon soap opera's -- like the " ... Housewives". There are some dialogues on classic literature and philosophy but those are not worth much. I like to listen to books that grab me immediately, that do not require any mental exertion and this is one of them.

I chose to listen to this book because of the reader, Robert Whifield. He is one of the best narrators, I think. I did find the voices of Cornelius and Jake a little tiresome, but they mesh into the story quite well. Whitfield sounds best in his own voice, of course. He is excellent. I am going to listen to "Churchill" read by him next. A definitely more challenging work than this book, but am looking forward to it.

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5 people found this helpful

I Really Tried

I honestly tried to like this book. The reviews were good, the author is well known and has published several books. This is my type of genre. I usually love the family saga but this was "sheer labor". I just couldn't finish it. The reader's voice for Cornelius made the character sound like he was 90 years old and the portrayal of these people and their lives just had a plastic coating on it. Nothing about it seemed real. Finally, the stilted British accent simply didn't fit the American characters at all.
This book and the reading there of were a huge
empty disappointment for me. Sorry- I rarely pan a book but this one was just painful to listen to.

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5 people found this helpful

never wanted this story to end

very fascinating story.one of those stories you hate to finish reading

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5 people found this helpful

Howatch fan

What made the experience of listening to Sins of the Fathers the most enjoyable?

It was a little odd to listen to a British performer reading the parts of American characters, switching back and forth in accents, depending on whether he was delivering dialogue or narration, but I acclimated. Always too much ETOH in Howatch novels, which gets tiresome, but her storytelling is always enjoyable to me.

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3 people found this helpful

Loved It

Listened to this directly after The Rich Are Different, the story just continued here. It was a very long story and I enjoyed every second. Love Susan Howatch, if you have never read her books, I strongly recommend.

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3 people found this helpful

soap opera

I listened to this one immediately after The Rich are Different. The first thing I didn't like was there was a different reader. Both readers were good but I never recovered completely from the change. Also, Cornelius sounded like the "godfather" and I never got used to it. I was disapointed than most of the characters didn't follow on although you do find out what happened to them.

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2 people found this helpful

Narrator's voicing not my style.

The story is good enough, but the narration wasn't at all my style. Sounded too lightweight, compared to the voices I had in my head for Cornelius, for instance.

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1 person found this helpful

Disappointing

This book was disappointing. I really enjoyed the prequel, The Rich Are Different, and was looking forward to this title as well. I'm not sure why I stuck with it... I guess I needed to see how it ended. I didn't like the narration at all, especially the voices of Cornelius and Sebastian . The book at times was trite and the characters are more like caricatures. I read and enjoyed many of Susan Howatch's books in the 70's and 80's and, even though this one was indeed a disappointment, I wish more of her early books were available in Audible.

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1 person found this helpful

It's Good (If There's Nothing Else To Read)

It was a book that held your interest here and there. Most of it blah. It would do if you're stuck in your car with a blizzard outside and there was absolutely nothing else to do. Then you might consider burning the paperback to stay warm. Okay, it wasn't THAT bad. But no means being a page turner. The reason I picked it up because of the vintage cover (1980) and it just proved the phrase: "Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover."

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