FEB/MAR 06 - AudioFile
Farrow’s reading soon becomes a performance, first winning, then powerful, especially as Rosemary (whom she played in the film), a young Manhattan housewife who becomes the victim of a coven determined to bring Satan’s heir into the world. She conveys especially well Rosemary’s vulnerability and trusting normalcy, which make the story all the more chilling. Farrow’s narration is professional otherwise, and her portrayal of other characters solid. One minor problem is that she carries over emotion from speeches inappropriately into speech tags and descriptions. A not so minor problem is that her voice sounds hollow, as if recorded in an acoustically unfriendly space. Harper/Caedmon provides a timed listing of tracks, something all audio publishers should do. W.M. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
bn.com
Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby has been reissued, and it reads even better now than it did when it first appeared. While the trappings are horror, the structure and tone of the story are those of a great middle-class crime story set in the turbulent '60s. A masterpiece.
—Ed Gorman
Publishers Weekly
Farrow's soothing reading of Ira Levin's classic returns her to the project that made her a star in Roman Polanski's eerily sedate thriller. Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse move into an ancient Manhattan apartment building and are immediately befriended by a pushy older couple, Minnie and Roman Castavet. When Rosemary becomes pregnant, she begins to suspect that the people in her building are satanists and that she may be carrying a demon's baby. What makes Levin's tale so haunting is how the horror is kept inconspicuous so tensions mount as ordinary events turn disturbing. Caedmon's packaging is outstanding, with inner sleeves listing track lengths and the first few words spoken on each track, making it easier to navigate. Farrow is an ideal choice as a reader for her history as well as her expressive and controlled reading. She doesn't attempt different voices for each character, but she does adapt a flat, nasal tone for Minnie (rather than imitate Ruth Gordon from the film). Subpar sound mars this classy recording: the volume is low and Farrow's voice sounds like it was recorded in a large, hollow space. Levin's thriller was previously recorded by Eileen Heckert in a 1986 three-hour abridgment from Random House Audio. (Nov.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
New Yorker
A succession of solid and quite legitimate surprises. The suspense is admirably sustained.”
New York Times
Suspense is beautifully intertwined with everyday incidents; the delicate line between belief and disbelief is faultlessly drawn.”
Chicago Tribune
Rosemary’s Baby is an all-time classic, a canonical book all suspense writers need to read for their survival and all other people should read just because.”
bestselling author of the Goosebumps series R. L. Stine
What does it feel like to write the best thriller ever written? Only Ira Levin can answer that question.”
award-winning author of Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk
There are books which document the culture and books that create it, and Rosemary’s Baby is both.”
Esquire
Suspicion. Fear. A dark secret at the core of the narrative. Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby possesses all the elements of a great mystery.”
Stephen King
Every novel [Ira Levin] has ever written has been a marvel of plotting. He is the Swiss watchmaker of the suspense novel.”
Truman Capote
A darkly brilliant tale of modern deviltry that induces the reader to believe the unbelievable. I believed it and was altogether enthralled.”
The New Yorker
A succession of solid and quite legitimate surprises. The suspense is admirably sustained.
The New York Times
Suspense is beautifully intertwined with everyday incidents; the delicate line between belief and disbelief is faultlessly drawn.
The New Yorker
A succession of solid and quite legitimate surprises. The suspense is admirably sustained.
The New York Times
Suspense is beautifully intertwined with everyday incidents; the delicate line between belief and disbelief is faultlessly drawn.
FEB/MAR 06 - AudioFile
Farrow’s reading soon becomes a performance, first winning, then powerful, especially as Rosemary (whom she played in the film), a young Manhattan housewife who becomes the victim of a coven determined to bring Satan’s heir into the world. She conveys especially well Rosemary’s vulnerability and trusting normalcy, which make the story all the more chilling. Farrow’s narration is professional otherwise, and her portrayal of other characters solid. One minor problem is that she carries over emotion from speeches inappropriately into speech tags and descriptions. A not so minor problem is that her voice sounds hollow, as if recorded in an acoustically unfriendly space. Harper/Caedmon provides a timed listing of tracks, something all audio publishers should do. W.M. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
