Portobello

A Novel

By: Ruth Rendell

Narrated by: Tim Curry

Ruth Rendell is widely considered to be crime fiction’s reigning queen. In Portobello, she delivers a captivating and intricate tale that weaves together the troubled lives of several people in the gentrified neighborhood of London’s Notting Hill.

Walking to the shops one day, 50-year-old Eugene Wren discovers an envelope on the street bulging with cash. A man plagued by a shameful addiction - and his own good intentions - Wren hatches a plan to find the money’s rightful owner. Instead of going to the police, or taking the cash for himself, he prints a notice and posts it around Portobello Road. This ill-conceived act creates a chain of events that links Wren to other Londoners - people afflicted with their own obsessions and despairs. As these volatile characters come into Wren’s life - and the life of his trusting fiancée - the consequences will change them all. Portobello is a wonderfully complex tour de force featuring a dazzling depiction of one of London’s most intriguing neighborhoods - and the dangers beneath its newly posh veneer.

©2010 Ruth Rendell (P)2010 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Rendell is particularly adept at portraying young people just a dole check away from homelessness as well as the carelessness and callousness of the book's upper-middle-class characters. Her style has become ever more spare while retaining its subtle psychology and vivid sense of place." ( Publishers Weekly)

NARRATOR!

Short revue as still listening, however, must add that the narrator is totally 'overdoing' the cockney voices, making all characters with it sound like stupid cartoon characters of themselves. Totally over the top. Sad, Tim Curry is fine actor/entertainer. Im finding it off putting but will have to suffer through it.

Marvelous story and reader

Tim curry should read everything! Wonderful reader. And I love the characters in Ruth Randell's books. I am addicted, although not to chic orange candies. Would like to try, though.....
Highly recommend!!!

spooky comes to life

I you love London from afar, this is a great book. Tim Curry is simply marvelous and brings all the characters to life.

Wonderful narration by Tim Curry

Curry’s narration really enhances the plot and Rendell’s characteristically quirky and in some cases very funny characters keep one’s interest

FASCINATING AND WELL-READ

The interweaving of the various plots and characters is masterful. This is one of the best of Rendell's novels I've read. The characters are fascinating. Their failings and struggles are involving and often touching. And, miracle of miracles, it doesn't end in misery! The narrator does a wonderful job with all the different accents. He portrays women well, which is challenging. This is an audiobook that you can read over and over again. Ten stars.

Haunting, edgy

The scariest part of this tale is that a little of Eugene may be in all of us. Like the video game you can't put down - the cell phone you have to keep checking - the 'likes' and retweets on social media... or choc-orange... Tim Curry does a wonderful job narrating - as usual!

Portobello's Lovely Mean Streets

Poignant, funny, human and sardonic, a spellbinding evocation by Ruth Rendell of a time - 2007 - and a place - the Portobello neighborhood of London - both distinct and universal. Rendell's rich and sensuous narrative draws us into the complicated and vivid lives of upper middle class, lower middle class, criminal, and slacker Londoners as if met on a stroll through Portobello. Each wants something elusive - security, sanity, love, food, or simply human contact - and we feel their longings as we wonder what will happen next in the convoluted, Dickensian plot driven by conflicting desires and obsessions. Tim Curry's narration splendidly summons the beauty and ugliness of the characters and their deeds.

Unusual character focus

Rendell's extraordinary attention to character development makes this book feel less like a muder mystery. Drama builds slowly but relentlessly, entangling the players more tightly with each chapter. If at the end, you feel a craving for sugar free chocolate, DO NOT give in. 🙂

Kinda boring, still a good read

This book is not your typical Rendell story. It's not full of colorful characters, just ordinary people trying to overcome everyday obstacles of living day to day, showing how they cope with said obstacles. But there was something also motivating to me about this book. Maybe it was Tim Curry's excellent narration. Let's face it, Tim Curry could read the phone book to you and make it sound interesting. Well, that was part of what kept me pressing on here. Another thing was I found these mundane situations and characters oddly relatable. Like I could be one of them, and oddly, I found myself weaning myself of an addition to an OTC medication I had been taking due to reading this ! There's one character that starts eating orange candies with artificial sweetener and finds himself addicted to them and then kicks his addiction. There was something oddly empowering in this story for me, because it's about most of us who are just trying to survive life in our own ways. Some of us finding ourselves forming unhealthy habits but finding the will to kick them, whatever they are. The little victories, which are what most of us have. Things that none else knows about except for us. Most of the time. I liked this book.

Literary equivalent of a choc orange.

Some will like it. Some will not. Most, I believe will enjoy the performance of Tim Curry's chocolate voice but the narrative will leave a sour taste behind.