Beginner's Greek

Often the audio medium can make a book an even richer experience, as elegant phrases and colorful characters are brought to life. Unfortunately, this production amplifies the novel's flaws. Peter keeps missing chances to reveal his true feelings of love to Holly, a woman he met by chance on a plane and who married his best friend. The book's clunky, repetitive prose (""This was flattery, meant to amuse and flatter her"") comes across worse to the ear than to the eye. The abridgment is often confusing and reduces dialogue scenes to dry summaries of discussions, but some of this is the author's fault. Instead of allowing the listener inside the heads of the characters, Collins simply describes their motivations in a detached, clinical way. This technique is more detrimental on audio than in print. Jerry O'Connell's bland, uninspired narration doesn't bother to differentiate character voices at all, apart from pitching his voice slightly higher for women's dialogue. He self-consciously enunciates each syllable, instead of using his acting skills to convey emotion or bring the story to life. The result is an audiobook as tedious as one of Peter's business meetings. Simultaneous release with the Little, Brown hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 1).