Apart from Love: Still Life with Memories, Volume 1 and 2

A Literary Masterpiece!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I already have, several times actually. This book is totally out of my usual genre (mysteries/thrillers) and probably falls most squarely in the literary fiction category, but I was completely blown away by its beauty and pathos. The quality of the writing is absolutely top notch, and when that is coupled with two supremely talented narrators, the combination is riveting.

What did you like best about this story?

I loved the current tense in which the vignettes were told, alternating between Anita and Ben, and the immediacy of the sensations one experiences when listening. The voices are so authentic, the dialog just perfect. I am so in awe of David Kudler's ability to interpret the written word. He is astoundingly good. And Heather Jane Hogan is equally as talented - her Southern accent was impeccable! I've become instant fans of both narrators.

Which character – as performed by David Kudler and Heather Jane Hogan – was your favorite?

That's really tough, because I loved Anita, Ben, Lenny, and the three aunts. But I guess if I was forced to choose, I'd pick Anita. She was so honest and real, no pretenses. She'd been through so much. My heart broke for her in many scenes.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

So many moments... but I think one of the most moving was when Ben went to visit his mother in the nursing home. So sad, so heartfelt...

Any additional comments?

I really loved this book, and I think it should win lots of literary fiction awards. It's just so powerful. But I didn't like the ending! Too much was left open, and I didn't get that warm, fuzzy feeling I crave. (Okay, so I'm a happy ending kind of guy). I think it could have ended shortly after Ben was kicked out of the house - this might have been a good point if there was not to be a happy ending! Aside from being disappointed that I didn't get to see the characters living happily at the end of the story, this book, its amazing narrators, and the beautiful scenes will stay with me for many years to come.

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The characters truly come to life

If you could sum up Apart from Love in three words, what would they be?

Full of Surprises

What did you like best about this story?

I had already read Apart From Love before listening to the audio version and I had previously found myself amazed by the author's brilliant story telling when I read it. With the audio book, it may have seemed clearer that they were recording themselves but it is hard to say since I had read the book already. Anita and Ben jumped out at you with their quirky personalities shining through their voices.

What about David Kudler and Heather Jane Hogan ’s performance did you like?

The show of emotion was wonderful for both Kudler and Hogan.

Who was the most memorable character of Apart from Love and why?

Ben and Anita are the most memorable characters in this complex story.

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Apart from Love weaves a dual spell

Would you listen to Apart from Love again? Why?

I'll listen to Apart from Love again because I so enjoyed the interplay between Heather Jane Hogan and David Kudler, the two narrators.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Ben was my favorite character. David Kudler brings Ben to life with sensitivity and grace, subsuming his narration in the story and letting the character come forth. Ben's story is at times heart-rending, and would be easily over done but a narrator of lesser skill.

What does David Kudler and Heather Jane Hogan bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The combination of Kudler's Ben and Hogan's Anita makes the tension of the book crackle with life; Anita's southern accent and Ben's underlying musicality (even to sometimes singing his lines), are unique to the narrators' interpretation of this sometimes tragic story.

If you could take any character from Apart from Love out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Definitely Ben, for his view of life as a melody with white keys and black.

Any additional comments?

A deep and complex tale, well worth hearing more than once.

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It just wasn't for me.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The pacing: it is very slow. And the characters lack significant growth over a 10-12 year plotline.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Anita's storyline was the most interesting. Ben and Lenny were stagnant - once their characters were established, nothing much changed with them. The same issues were rehashed again and again.

Have you listened to any of David Kudler and Heather Jane Hogan ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have listened to one other Heather Jane Hogan performance. I liked her performance in Twisted by Uvi Poznansky better.

Did Apart from Love inspire you to do anything?

There was one scene that left me wanting ice cream.

Any additional comments?

This book was well written with plenty of thought put into the plights of the characters, carefully mapping out how each responds to the emotional situations they find themselves in, considering each person’s needs and desires. With that said, this wasn’t the book for me. I found the pacing of the story extremely slow (and for someone who adores Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth, the pacing must be pretty slow). Also, I saw very little character growth for any of the characters from the time Anita comes into their lives fastforwarded 10 years to the wedding of Lenny and Anita. Ben went off to college, to Europe and comes back at age 27. Didn’t he have adventures? Romances? Heartbreak? But he appears to be the same as he was at age 17 when Anita first came into his life. Also, Anita seems to have very little growth. While I found her story line the most interesting, I was left feeling that all she did for 10 years was watch questionable TV and keep Lenny happy in bed. I think if the storyline was compressed over a 3-4 year span, this lack of character growth wouldn’t have bugged me as it did.

With that criticism, if you have an interest in child-parent relations when there is a divorce and a new, younger significant other takes the place of one parent, then this book might be of great interest to you. There was also that side tragedy of Natasha’s illness (which Lenny managed to hide from Ben for 10-12 years). I definitely understood Ben’s mix of emotions when he finally found out – deep sadness, betrayal (why didn’t his dad trust him with this news much earlier?). If you read the blurb on Goodreads for this book, you will see that a tape recorder with the recorded innermost thoughts of the main characters plays a key role in the story. However, this tape recorder doesn’t really come into play until the reader is perhaps 75% of the way through the book. So, it’s significance seemed rather minor to me, as compared the Natasha’s piano.

While this book was not the book for me, I am not turned off of Uvi Poznansky’s works and will look forward to checking out further works from her. Her care in plotting and setting up characters was evident in this book, even if the subject didn’t move me.

The Narration: Heather Jane Hogan and David Kudler did a decent job of narrating the story. Heather’s voice for Anita was especially good since she had the most emotional outbursts. David gave Ben an agonized voice for when he finally reunites with his ill mother and he filled Ben’s voice with longing when Ben was thinking of Anita.

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Beautifully Written and Lyrical

Having already read My Own Voice, as well as a few other books written and tied together by this amazing, lyrical, author, Uvi Poznanski, I decided to listen to the audio version of this duet. I felt as if I visited old friends in Apart from Love…friends from My Own Voice, and a new family member, Ben, in The White Piano, who unravels his own emotions after he discovers what he’s missed by staying away from home for many years…

Uvi Poznanski’s lyrical writing continually paints exquisite works of art on the canvas of my mind. In My Own Voice, Poznanski’s craft lured me into the heroine’s story. The rich southern accent depicted in the audiobook added to Anita’s character, drive, and angst in this first person narrative, making it so easy to identify with this heroine.

Having read Lenny and Natasha’s story in a previous book, I was drawn into Anita‘s situation and felt her challenges loving an older man while fighting the shadow of his ex-wife. But she learned at an early age how to use her looks to manipulate men to get her own way and, despite their age difference, she marries the man she wants and has his baby.

In The White Piano, I listened to Ben’s point of view, returning to his home after many years to discover his mother, Natasha––a talented pianist––now stricken with Alzheimer’s, has lost the ability to play the piano. He meets his father’s new wife, Anita, who bears a striking resemblance to his mother, and he is filled with simmering emotion…especially when he falls into an intimate relationship with Anita.

As a growing fan of this author’s style, I’ve come to expect a beautifully-written story with richly drawn characters and a poignant theme. The family saga, so enriched by this author’s style and the voice actor’s narrative, touches the soul. If you love beautifully written lyrical literature, I highly recommend Apart From Love and award Five Stars to this brilliant work.

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Poetic and Seductive

What did you love best about Apart from Love?

The different levels in the story: mythological, philosophical, and romantic.

What other book might you compare Apart from Love to and why?

The three aunts—the Fates—snipping and knitting, moving amongst the lives of the main characters. Also, there is the basic story of the love triangle of Ben, his father Lenny, and Anita (the young wife who is replacing Ben’s mother) that is reminiscent of Oedipus Rex: kill the father and marry the stepmother. Because of these parallels, I see this as a potential Greek tragedy that may have been written in ancient times.

Have you listened to any of David Kudler and Heather Jane Hogan ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but I enjoyed their performances and would certainly look for additional audibles featuring them.

If you could take any character from Apart from Love out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Anita. Despite being uneducated, poor and seemingly a home wrecker, she shows--surprisingly--much wisdom. She is fiercely protective of her unborn child and the reader/listener will have no doubt that Anita will be a superior mother.

Any additional comments?

The best part of a Poznansky book? The poetic prose, her seductive words, that make each book well worth listening to or reading.

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Unique & Spellbinding!

Where does Apart from Love rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Apart from Love, is only the second time that I have listened to an audio book. I have heard several people say what a wonderful experience it is to do so and now I can see the benefits for myself.

What does David Kudler and Heather Jane Hogan bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Both David Kudler and Heather Jane Hogan bring the characters of Ben and Anita to life. Their voices, with the appropriate amounts of sadness, enthusiasm, voice intonations, soft or loud etc. depending on the situation, definitely add to this audio experience.

If you could take any character from Apart from Love out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Anita...I would like to sit across the table from her to get a better picture of how such a young woman...the same age as Lenny's son Ben...could end up with such an older man for a husband.

Any additional comments?

Author Uvi Poznansky is an artist! There is no doubt about it. As I read "Apart from Love", I was drawn into a masterfully created piece of artwork. This is no ordinary novel. It richly depicts the product of a dysfunctional family and how they are drawn together, yet so repulsed by each other.

There is a quality so deep and raw in "Apart from Love" that it's almost impossible to put this book down. In my opinion, Uvi Poznansky writes like a painter. She starts with a clean canvas and dabs a little paint here and a little paint there as she develops her characters and creates her masterpiece. Her strokes then become broader, more passionate, more vivid and vibrant as she continues to let her characters' stories unfold. She draws you in to a deeper level than you might actually want to go as she ignites the fire to your own love, passions, and fears.

Ben, the 27 year old son grudgingly returns home many years after the divorce of his parents, Lenny and Natasha. He finds that there is a mutual attraction between his father's young wife Anita, and himself. Their stories, along with Lenny's are related in a narrative as each person has the opportunity to share his side of the events that take place. "Apart from Love" reminds me of a movie I enjoyed many years ago...Cat on a Hot Tin Roof because it is a well-written drama that could take place on a stage similar to this movie. In "Apart from Love" Ben states..."In our family, forgiveness is something you pray for, something you yearn to receive but so seldom do you give to others." There is definitely a great need for forgiveness both on the giving end as well as the receiving end in this novel.Similar to any other work of art, the artist leaves so much of themselves in their work. Author Uvi Poznansky has done just that! Kudos to her on a job well done!

Inspirational Author & Book Reviewer ~ Dolores Ayotte

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An intriguing novel...Buy it, Read it, LOVE it!

Any additional comments?

Uvi Poznansky explores the intricate and complex world of love in ‘Apart From Love’. Very well written and engaging throughout, this novel does, as so many have indicated, reveal the multiple truths behind a dysfunctional family. This author has a real gift for getting right inside her characters' heads. I found her words possessed a special kind of tenderness. Uvi's style is like beautiful poetry. I have never read a book like this. It really stayed interesting till the very last page. The author has great talent and a true master of her craft. Highly recommend the audio

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Add to or amplify, audio adds.

Here is the review I did on the book after I read it.
Literary fiction at it's best.
This is not an easy read, nor a fast one. The reader is immersed in the life and love of a complicated family. The plot is complicated. The theme is one of perspective and in this lies part of the beauty of this novel. The readers perception is formed from multiple point of views. As soon as one perception is formed another take on the reality that is displayed is introduced.

The above is nice extra topping on literally poetry in motion. The authors ability to economically use words in a fluid descriptive manner is akin to see a master painter start a work of genius on a blank canvas. By the end of the process the observer is left stunned and awed.

I know this for this is the effect this book had on me. With almost every known emotion exploited and turned topsy- turvy, I stand in awe.

Now on to the narrators, David Kudler as Ben and Bens' dad did a masterful job in bringing to the fore, for me, what a pathetic man Ben really is. At 27 he never had a job. He blames his folks for everything. He drifts around like a hobo and assumes it is his right that his father keeps looking after him for he is his son.

Anita came to life with Heather Jane Hogan. She may not be well educated or even brought up well but she has smarts. The real type, the deep type that gives her insight into the human state of being that is actually kind of chilling. The two narrators added so much to the story, amplified it. Made it sharper, made the contrasts that more deep. I absolutely adored this book after I was a bit hesitant to start on it since I could still recall the book pretty well after reading it not that long ago. Absolutely amazing. A must listen.

WaAr.

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Beautifully written and perfectly narrated

A famous poet, translator, and philosopher Samuil Marshak once said that frequent use of highly emotional words robs them of their meaning, making them dull and lackluster, like an old coin losing its shine. And that's exactly what Anita, the young wife of Ben's aging father, says to her husband in the story: “Just say something to me. Anything." And I thought, Any other word apart from Love, `cause that word is diluted, and no one knows what it really means, anyway.

Coming from uneducated Anita, who is a far cry from being a poet or a philosopher, this thought acquires an even more poignant and raw meaning. She is not trying to impress anyone, she is speaking her heart and her mind, trying to cope with the turmoil of her aging husband's fast decline and her growing attraction for his adult son Ben.

Emotions run high in this story by Uvi Poznansky, made even more prominent by the alternating voices in the audio version. Heather Jane Hogan is wonderful as Anita: she comes across as open and unpretentious, just like Anita’s character is supposed to be. David Kudler, as Ben, is more eloquent and sophisticated not only in his words but in his tone of voice that comes across in the audiobook. I sensed a tone of subtle surprise in his tone as he finds himself falling for Anita, through guilt and internal struggle.

A beautifully-written and perfectly narrated book. Highly recommended.

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