A Song From Under The Floorboards

Where does The Incredible Shrinking Man rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
A little above the middle. It's a reasonably interesting science fiction novel from the mid 20th century.
It's a book that everybody knows the film version of, and I'm often intrigued to know what originally happened in these cases. The film is actually pretty faithful to the book, aside from the structure and the chronology. Whereas the film tends to focus on the physical dangers of becoming ever smaller, the book explores the psychological and emotional aspects more. It's good to get both, but on balance the film is more inventive, and its straightforward linear narrative works better than the jumping-between-two-timelines approach in the book.
The science is complete horses' hooves - the square-cube issues are ignored, and the biological explanation for shrinking probably wouldn't convince a biologist - but that's okay because it's the "what if?" of the story.

What other book might you compare The Incredible Shrinking Man to, and why?
I'm being perversely literal here, but I'm going for Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and even more so the Magazine song it inspired (see headline).
The song's chorus goes, "This is a song from under the floorboards/This is a song from where the wall is cracked/My force of habit I am an insect/I have to confess I'm proud as hell of that fact." When I listened to it I used to picture the man in the cellar, lonely and tiny and preoccupied with not being eaten by a spider.
The opening of the Dostoevsky novel has a similar vibe. Its ending is more reminiscent of another Magazine song, Permafrost... but I digress.

Did Yuri Rasovsky do a good job differentiating each of the characters? How?
Suffice to say it was generally clear who was speaking.
I wasn't overkeen on his reading. For about half the book he sounded as if he was talking angrily through clenched teeth. Later I realised he was trying to reflect the protagonist's mood in his voice, which didn't really work.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Not really - possibly because the reader was overdoing the emotion. If we see that somebody has undergone a tragedy, we tend to be much more sympathetic towards them if they are stoic about it, no matter how much they might be entitled to whinge.
There are some emotional moment nonetheless, notably Scott's meeting with a woman who is temporarily like himself, and the sheer unconsciousness of his wife's changing attitude towards him is convincing and distressing.

Any additional comments?
The book was originally called The Shrinking Man - no extra adjective. I don't think it needed to be retitled to reflect the film - it's not like the leap from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep to Bladerunner, is it?

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Not one of Matheson's best, but still a good story

Would you listen to The Incredible Shrinking Man again? Why?

Probably, although I wouldn't rush to it. The plot was good, even if it took a little while to get used to it flicking back and forth between the past and present. Plenty of can't-put-it-down spells. I appreciate it isn't supposed to be a 'happy' story, but being intense from beginning to end gave a feeling of wanting to come up for air.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Incredible Shrinking Man?

Won't give the story away ;-)

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Incredible.

I loved the film as a child. It always made me sad. The book is even better. The horror, the anger, the sadness. The basic need for survival , comfort and a place in the world but also the big philosophical question - what is a man? Great book and well read. Loved it.

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Beautifully Rounded Adventure

So much better than the film! Read with style. Very thought provoking and very honest. One of the few books I will listen to again!

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Incredible!

Having thoroughly enjoyed a previous Richard Matheson story (I Am Legend - also on audible) I was anxious to see if his other work could measure up to its standards. This story is exciting, intriguing and exceptionally well paced. My initial concerns over the narrator were quickly put to rest as after a while you sink into the story. Incredible!

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3 people found this helpful

Wildly imaginative and brilliantly performed.

A lesson in building tension and creating atmosphere with simple language. He is a master writer and this is an extraordinary story. It's impossible not to share every emotion the protagonist goes through.

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Brilliant! I loved it

Excellent narrator; I loved his angry voice. Fantastic story. It kept me hooked from the start. I Thoroughly enjoyed it.

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1 person found this helpful

A must read

One of the best audiobooks on this website and I've gone through a lot of them

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Disappointing

Having listened to several other Matheson audiobooks (I Am Legend, Somewhere in Time, A Stir of Echoes, Hell House, What Dreams May Come) I was expecting more. The inspection of the main characters changing relationship with his family was typical Matheson but his 'adventures' around the cellar were, at times, uninteresting. At times, I found my mind wandering only for me to snap out of it and reach for the rewind button in case I'd missed a good bit. Not his best.

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1 person found this helpful