May 13, 2020

"Some listeners will buy whatever he narrates, which might help explain why a collection of Albert Camus essays from the mid-20th century suddenly..."

"... found itself on the audiobook best-seller list last year. When the publisher Recorded Books needed someone to narrate all five volumes of Robert Alter’s new, acclaimed translation of the Hebrew Bible, Ballerini was chosen to read it.... After years spent giving voice to novelists ranging from Dean Koontz to Ha Jin, Ballerini was now also the voice of God.... At 50, Edoardo Ballerini enjoys a particular kind of stardom.... Reading and recording for hours was harder than he expected. Sound booths are small and airless; before too long, a reader’s throat grows parched, and the need to swallow becomes increasingly hard to ignore. 'I used to have to go home and pass out,' Ballerini told me, recalling his first foray. 'It’s exhausting. The best comparison I can think of is to long-distance running. It’s easy to say you just put one foot in front of the other for a long time. You actually do it, it’s difficult.'... Ballerini recognizes the responsibility involved in interpreting others’ words, so much so that he almost declined to narrate Alter’s translation of the Bible... He had made it clear to the producers that if he took on the project, he would not orate it, James Earl Jones-style; nor would character sketches drive his performance. His goal was simply to read it with the natural incantation of storytelling, as best he could, even when just listing dozens of multisyllabic biblical names. His one predetermined decision was that he would slow down when he read as God. 'I’m God,' he said. 'I’m not in any hurry — no one’s going anywhere when I speak.' He would avoid theological interpretation, and yet even a wholly neutral delivery would be a choice of consequence...."

From "The Voice of God. (And Knausgaard, Whitman, Machiavelli … )" (NYT).

I bought the Bible audiobook at Amazon — here.

26 comments:

Oso Negro said...

I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy aloud twice in its entirety. First to my son, then to my daughters. I sympathize.

Oso Negro said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

cool. I don't listen to audio books. Do you download to the i-phone?

Greg Hlatky said...

There is only one Voice of God: John Facenda.

Leland said...

I've purchased several books simply because they were read by Dick Hill.

Michael said...

Greg Hlatky said...
There is only one Voice of God: John Facenda.


I could listen to Facenda read the sandwich menu at Wawa

YoungHegelian said...

Jonathan Alter's acclaimed Bible translation. "Acclaimed" by who?

Alter's translation encapsulates in one swell foop every pompous misconception in modern Reform/Secular American Jewish culture.

n.n said...

Sympathetic rhythms. In the worst case, they can destroy bridges. In the best case, they are a cat's meow... purrrfect.

JayG said...

I considered getting the Audible version, but was very annoyed that the 5-minute audio sample is not from any part of the Bible. It's from the book's introduction. Bad move.

To Greg Klatky: I agree that the late John Facenda had a rich, authoritative voice, and I assume you know him from his years narrating NFL films. But when I was a kid in Philadelphia, Facenda was the news anchor on the local CBS affiliate. After a childhood of hearing him describe house fires, school closings and city council meetings, it's hard for me to consider him as the voice of God.

Expat(ish) said...

I have thre kids and read Narnia against my wife Potter.

I’ve also run 50K and trained for 50M.

I say nay.

-XC

Narayanan said...

For hearing impaired are there videos of sign language readings?

I would like to see That little girl from days ago sign this Bible.

RigelDog said...

Odd...last week I finished listening to the audiobook version of the novel Agent Zero, which is narrated by Ballerini, and now here he is again. He's good but I'm very surprised that he has a devoted fan-base. BTW the book was so-so.

RigelDog said...

Bleach Bit said: cool. I don't listen to audio books. Do you download to the i-phone? }}}

Yes! I never listened to audiobooks until about 2 years ago, when I discovered that my boredom with exercise, housework, shopping and cooking disappears when I have an audiobook to listen to. You can listen on your phone, Kindle, computer. I've figured out how to get almost all of my audiobooks for free, too. Our public library has a lot, and the library also contracts with three other providers who offer many more. Right now I'm listening to a fairly recent novel by Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child in the delicious Agent Pendergast series that is free through my library; I just finished a recent David Baldacci and soon will have the latest Michael Connelly Harry Bosch novel, all free. I also have a Kindle Unlimited account with Amazon which has thousands of free audiobook versions of their offerings. You should totally try audiobooks!

jimbino said...

I didn't read the Bible, but I did see the movie.

Freeman Hunt said...

Some of my favorite narrators:

Ralph Cosham
Benjamin Soames
Anton Lesser
Michael Hordern
Sean Bean
Richard Armitage
Jim Dale
Stephen Fry
John Cleese
Phyllida Nash
Alex Jennings
Juliet Stevenson

A pattern emerges.

Estoy_Listo said...

Dick Estell--the Radio Reader--was my guy, but that was long back to the 70s and 80s before audiobooks. I enjoyed reading aloud, and I spent some time as a volunteer reader at a radio station for the blind. My only commercial reading was the "I Love to Fart Cookbook," which sadly sold not-at-all.

Lurker21 said...

I know the name from somewhere but didn't realize he read audiobooks. Audiobook readers can achieve a certain fame in their world -- like the German voices who dubbed American films into German. It seems like if they're doing their jobs right I don't really notice them. It's the ones with annoying mannerisms whose names I remember: Flo Gibson, George Guidall, Frederick Davidson, and of course Paul Auster. He reads his own audiobooks. He's not bad at first, but the tough guy bit gets on the nerves after a while.

Chris Lopes said...

I'm a Robert Inglis fan. His Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are classics. It's like listening to Tolkien as read by Gandolf.

David Duffy said...

I read to my two sons every night since the oldest was able to comprehend words on a pillow wrapped, pop up children's book. As they became teenagers, the last book I remember reading to them was "Huckleberry Fin."

I explained to them that the "Ni..." word, pronouncing the word out loud, they were never to speak aloud and why. I read Huck substituting the N.... as "Nigro," which is different than Negro (I thought the best I could do).

To this day, they understand.

Quaestor said...

Althouse buying an audiobook version of the Bible is richly hilarious, which reminds me of the time Homer Simpson spent what was apparently his last hour of life listening to Larry King read the Bible. True to the traditions of the classical period of The Simpsons, this was another multifaceted joke. Homer was not dying of blowfish toxin, he was just bored into unconsciousness by the incessant drone of King reciting the "begats", nor was he listening to the "Good Book", as it is well known that while he lived Larry King was the incarnation of Satan and any Scripture related in his voice was subtly corrupted to advance the cause of Hell. The real Voice of God was granted to Alexander Scourby, but his true and inspired audio Bible was too expensive for cheapskate Homer, who invested the difference in Extra Malty Duffs at Moe's Tavern.

Earnest Prole said...

I bought Alter’s Bible translation (the book, not the audio), cracked it open to Leviticus, and witnessed the moment law transcended superstition (barely).

Quaestor said...

Freeman Hunt writes: Some of my favorite narrators...

Good choices all around, though I'd recommend anything read by Nadia May (a pseudonym for Wanda McCaddon.) Not only is her enunciation remarkable clear, May's timbre is, to my ears at least, near perfection — neither too high nor too low. If Nadia May were a classically trained singer she'd be a lyric contralto.

Jack Klompus said...

"There is only one Voice of God: John Facenda."

I went to high school with his grandsons. They are the nicest, classiest family you could ever meet.

Fernandinande said...

For many years, Bill Cosby's reading of The Book of Noah has been a source of comfort in comfortable times.

Freeman Hunt said...

"I'd recommend anything read by Nadia May"

Thanks for the recommendation!

RigelDog said...

Rene Auberjonois narrates the Agent Pendergast novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Childs. He is a great reader and actor, able to make subtle changes for the voices of multiple characters, both male and female. He's better than Ballerini.