Sleeping Beauty: Amazon.ca: Ross Macdonald: Books

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by Ross MacDonald

4.0 out of 5 stars (3)

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Product Description

From AudioFile

Ross Macdonald would have loved this dramatized version of his 1973 novel. Playing out the full array of California characters and his detective, Lew Archer, are an impressive cast. More than thirty actors participated in this distinctive production, directed by Harris Yulin. Ed Asner, Anthony Zerbe and Stacy Keach are just a few of the actors whose voices and names illuminate the cast. The dialogue is as snappy and fresh as MacDonald intended. As Archer, Yulin provides first-rate narrative integrated wonderfully with the dialogue of the characters. The program was serialized for broadcast, and remastered for the cassette version. R.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Publishers Marketing Association

The Publishers Marketing Association Benjamin Franklin Award Winner for Best Audiobook -- Adult Fiction.

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5 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Best audio book I've heard, Feb 12 2002

By	K. Braithwaite (inkster, MI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a superlative production. Yulin doesn't merely read, he performs, and his voice matches the role. The other parts are nearly all well played, and the music never intrudes. Atmospheric and involving for 9 hours!

The book is one of MacDonald's last, and it has some of the overwrought quality that mar his later books, but this is only occasionally a distraction.

For those looking for other MacDonalds, the best are The Chill, Far Side of the Dollar, the Zebra-Striped Hearse, The Galton Case (all from 1959-65).

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5.0 out of 5 stars Ross MacDonald's Best, Mar 8 2001

By	Brad S. Leyhe (Needham, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sleeping Beauty (Paperback)

One of the obvious observations about Ross MacDonald's series of Lew Archer detective novels is that they are essentially the same story. Eerily MacDonald's plot lines reflect his own troubled and unsettled childhood. On the surface, this novel is about a very troubled young woman that seems to be in the wrong place at the precisely wrong times. It seems impossible that she could be innocent of anything or everything. Nevertheless, true to MacDonald's plot form, the real villains are the immature adults that compounded their original sins year by year, lie by lie. The true crime always is years in the past in Ross MacDonald's novels. The perpetrator forever spends his or her life covering up the original crime and always enmeshing his or her child into the original felony.

Ross MacDonald's prose is simply pure art. He settles you into the tacky 40's through 60's of California and then contrasts the empty lives of the rich and the destitute. He exposes his characters as being very troubled and not very innocent. Archer, his guide/protagonist is dogged as the revelation of the true perpetrator(s) slowly emerges. Terse first person narration gives this novel a stunning sense of realism.

This is a really wonderful detective novel, a form of noir that is so special. Vintage Crime/Lizard Press has reissued most of the Archer series and they remain as vital, and entertaining as when they were first printed. I recommend working through the whole series of these wonderful reprints.

However, having read them all and having read most of them several times over, this in my opinion is the best by a far measure. The best of this series is perhaps the best of all detective novels. Chandler and Hammett did not have the power of prose that Ross MacDonald so effortlessly spins.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Production Nearly Redeems Dull Mystery, Jun 29 1999

By A Customer

But not quite. While I wouldn't say this was a terrible novel, I also wouldn't say that it was in any way memorable. Because of the wonderful dramatization on the audio cassette, I passed an afternoon at work more pleasantly, being entertained by the acting skills of the readers. However, if I'd been merely reading a text version of this story, I wouldn't have finished it because the plot did not interest me enough to deserve my full attention. The characters are too typical of a mystery novel, the prose style unremarkable, and the ending not too exciting.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A great production done in the style of a radio play
One of Ross MacDonald's better books to begin with. I'm usually not a big fan of audio books - I don't like abridged versions of books, but full versions of books on audio can... Read more

Published on Jan 8 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good novel, presented with extraordinary care and art
Though not the best Ross MacDonald novel, this is certainly one of the best (which places it head and shoulders above nearly all the competition). Read more

Published on Sep 20 1998 by A music lover