Neil Gaiman Follow Up

Well, I finished the audio verison of Anansi Boys. I had posted earlier, that it was a drag that the talk I'd been hearing about Lenny Henry's great narration had upset the apple cart of my carefully planned reading list and I promised to blog about my impressions.

The result?

Lenny Henry, indeed, does an incredible job. He approaches narration in the tradition of Jim Dale's Harry Potter recordings, more acting than reading. Both Dale and Henry create myriad voices and personalities -- and in the case of Anansi Boys, myriad accents too. Just off the top of my head, there's a variety of West Indian characters, posh Brits, Northern accents, London accents, an American ... the gamut. Very entertaining.

As for the book, I'm not much of a one for magical realism, so those parts of the story were less interesting to me, but I did enjoy it as a visit to the UK (the action takes place in Florida, London, an island called St. Andrews, and various alternate universes). Gaiman is a skilled storyteller and he creates extremely likable characters.

If it were me coming fresh to this again, I would "abso-tively" [a favourite word of one of the characters] pick up the audio version. The made-out-of-trees version might be less fun for those who like their reality real (unless it's full out scifi).