Lynnie 
contemporary fiction, short stories
No Two Persons has been on my reading list for a while, and because the
audiobook won several awards, I decided to wait until I could get that
version from the library. I loved the book and the stories, but
admittedly I did not love the narrators. But let's review the book
first.
No Two Persons is a series of stories, all based around a fictional book (Theo) and it's effect on those who interact with it from the writer, to the assistant who helps get it published, to a series of readers and ultimately the publisher. While we learn pieces about the fictional novel's plot throughout, the focus is more on how people react to and interact with the book and its main character, Theo. As Erica Bauermeister writes, "no two persons read the same book." Books are filtered through each readers' own experiences and the collections of stories in No Two Persons shows how that's true. It was moving to see how the book found the readers during important moments in their lives. Like any collection of interconnected short stories, I connect with some more than others, and that was exacerbated by the narrators.
In the audiobook, each story has a different narrator. Beginning with Rachel Jacobs as the writer, I admit I didn't like her style. She spoke so... slow...ly... that I ended up speeding up the narration- which helped quite a bit. After the first chapter, the narration improved, in my opinion. Standouts included Braden Wright as the actor, Max Meyers as the Diver, Gabra Zackman as the teenager, Stephen Graybill as the bookseller, George Newbern as the caretaker (my personal favorite, his chapter felt like someone was talking to me, where the others sounded like they were reading to me), and Carol Jacobanis as the agent. The other narrators, Barrie Kreinik, Jesse Vilinsky, and Cassandra Campbell didn't capture my imagination quite so clearly. Overall, I give the ensemble a B, but George Newbern and Gabra Zackman get solid As.
No Two Persons is a series of stories, all based around a fictional book (Theo) and it's effect on those who interact with it from the writer, to the assistant who helps get it published, to a series of readers and ultimately the publisher. While we learn pieces about the fictional novel's plot throughout, the focus is more on how people react to and interact with the book and its main character, Theo. As Erica Bauermeister writes, "no two persons read the same book." Books are filtered through each readers' own experiences and the collections of stories in No Two Persons shows how that's true. It was moving to see how the book found the readers during important moments in their lives. Like any collection of interconnected short stories, I connect with some more than others, and that was exacerbated by the narrators.
In the audiobook, each story has a different narrator. Beginning with Rachel Jacobs as the writer, I admit I didn't like her style. She spoke so... slow...ly... that I ended up speeding up the narration- which helped quite a bit. After the first chapter, the narration improved, in my opinion. Standouts included Braden Wright as the actor, Max Meyers as the Diver, Gabra Zackman as the teenager, Stephen Graybill as the bookseller, George Newbern as the caretaker (my personal favorite, his chapter felt like someone was talking to me, where the others sounded like they were reading to me), and Carol Jacobanis as the agent. The other narrators, Barrie Kreinik, Jesse Vilinsky, and Cassandra Campbell didn't capture my imagination quite so clearly. Overall, I give the ensemble a B, but George Newbern and Gabra Zackman get solid As.
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