Maris Kreizman on the importance of a good reader
Who is a better narrator for an audiobook: the book’s author or a professional voice actor?
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trick question. The answer is both, and/or, it depends.
Let’s leave non-fiction writing out of this discussion because I think almost any personal writing will benefit from the literal voice of the author, whether in memoir-form, in a personal essay, or in reporting in which the author is present. That’s why I begged my publisher to let me narrate her essay collection, and why, from celebrities to comedians (Alison Libby’s new one is great!) to journalists (let Patrick Raden Keefe do whatever he wants!), I enjoy author-narrated performances more.
But the imagination is a bit thorny. Not all fiction writers are actors and that’s okay because voice actors do exist and many of them are amazing. In fact, voice actors are very important. To believe a claim like this, you have to believe it, no matter what. AI companies like to sayThat narrating books is an art and should be treated as such.
Even more, you must believe that human interpretation of a text matters. This is a big reason Imagination Matters. It’s not just about words; It’s about how context and the reader’s experience can change the resonance of those words, and why readers can find different meanings in the same work. The performance of a text by a skilled narrator can change those meanings even further.
Display of Dion Graham’s books at Colson Whitehead Harlem Trilogy This is one of the great storytelling performances of all time, so I’ll use it as a case study. Graham uses subtly different voices with varying cadences to portray the series’ wide range of characters, and taken cumulatively, he evokes a very particular time and place – Harlem in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Not to mention that Whitehead’s writing is so persuasive that without Graham fleshing out the characters and sometimes being slow to clearly say a particular line, I would have likely read too quickly and missed much of the humor of the trilogy.
There is a unique pleasure in hearing a novelist read his or her work aloud.
But it’s not just Graham. January Lavoy works across a variety of genres and brings passion to each one. So do personal favorites like Mara Wilson, Rebecca Lowman, Julia Whalen, and many others. I especially love it when a narrator draws on an author’s work so much that their voices mesh in a pleasing way. I can’t think of Mona Awad’s dark fantasy novels without hearing them Sophie Amos’s voiceAnd Roger Clark’s accent work This is closely related to my understanding of Tana French’s Cal Hopper series.
We could even count celebrity narrators here, with the caveat that your average audiobook narrator lacks the financial stability of your average Hollywood star. But there’s a lot to love: Jeremy Irons explains Brideshead, Revisited Or Marisa Tomei narrating Elena Ferrante’s English translation lying life of adults. A Bonus: Did You Know Matt Bomer Illustrated the 10th Anniversary Edition of Hanya Yanagihara a little life?
But there is a unique pleasure in hearing a novelist read their work aloud, their craft judgments made clear. Both lesser known (so far) authors and veterans alike have done it well. recently i fell in love Reading about Maryam Rahmani’s 2025 debut, liquidAnd Jordy Rosenberg’s brilliant interpretation of his latest novel, night night phone. A special mention for Ann Patchett: She narrated Meryl Streep. Tom Lakeand tom hanks did Dutch HouseBut Patchett read his latest novel himself, WhistlerThat is as good as it is.
My all-time favorite is when an eccentric or eccentric type of writer reads their work and the text you thought you knew makes a lot more sense. I’m thinking about reading Donna Tartt secret historyHer Southern accent emphasizes how misfit her main character is at her New England liberal arts college. Questionable decisions of the main character in Miranda July all four Be more expressive when the author is telling the story. And there’s no one other than Bret Easton Ellis who should ever read The Shards: Its narrator’s deranged blabbering is the most meaningful coming out of his own mouth. I don’t know what a show based on the book would be like, but I can definitely say I was ready for a 23-hour audiobook.
i need to know this too toni morrison He narrated all of his audiobooks and they are as extraordinary as they sound.
There are lots of great options for audiobook narrators. Unless you’re visually impaired, in which case I have no basis to tell you what you should or shouldn’t do to make the world more accessible, the only bad option is to go with an AI narrator. Reading and listening to fiction is fundamentally about accessing one’s humanity. We cannot outsource this to machines.
