Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell Audiobook Review
In the vast canon of contemporary young adult literature, a couple of books have burrowed their way into the souls of readers quite like Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park. This achingly romantic yet grounded tale of two misfits forming an unbreakable bond over mixtapes and comics quickly struck an extensive chord upon its release. Now, the acclaimed work gets new life and unlimited layers of psychological depth through Rebecca Lowman and Sunil Malhotra’s spellbinding his-and-hers narrative on the Audible Studios audiobook edition.
The Soulmates
1986 – Park Sheridan could not possibly anticipate how his bleak, fixed presence would be overthrown when the enigmatic new girl Eleanor barges into his life– literally. With her wildly askew thrift store fashions and haunted eyes, she represents everything outside Park’s understanding of normalcy as the mixed-race child in a rigidly conventional rural household.
Yet as their shared enthusiasm for hard rock, X-Men, and getting away into pictured worlds blooms over mixtapes taken in on the bus each day, a solid bond transcending cliche is created. Outsiders amongst outsiders, these 2 lost souls lastly discover unity and haven in their intense infatuation for one another amidst the relentless cruelties of high school and inefficient homes.
Lowman & Malhotra – The Perfect Vocal Chemistry
Just as the popular book effortlessly conjures the dizzying low and high of first love, Lowman and Malhotra’s vocal interaction as the titular characters on the audiobook attains an equivalent sense of envigorating rapture and sweeping distress that’s nothing short of fascinating.
From their initial uncomfortable exchanges leaking with worried energy and subtext, their performances slowly meld into a singular, symbiotic rhythm throughout Rowell’s simple yet poetic prose. You become so intertwined in their vocal push-and-pull that it’s difficult to envision one narrator without the other – their extensive connection as soulmates shown through the airwaves.
Lowman’s Fragile, Haunting Vocals
To inhabit Eleanor’s unenviable inner world, Lowman summons limitless tanks of fragility, melancholy, and hard-earned knowledge beyond her years. Her singing brittleness discreetly means the distressing neglect and abuse lurking below Eleanor’s bold, punky surface area. Yet there’s always an undercurrent of plucky decisions peeking through the layers of scarred resignation that makes you wish to cradle this harmed soul protectively.
When she finally opens her heart to Park, Lowman’s delivery becomes tinged with restored hope and giddy infatuation as if allowing herself – and the listener – to imagine going beyond previous injuries. Her dizzying emotional variety reaches subatomic levels of nuance, raising every banal interaction into a mini symphony of the human condition.
Malhotra’s Grounded, Lovable Performance
As the biracial Park, Malhotra brings tenderness, uncomfortable appeal and a grounded centre that makes for the perfect singing enhancement to Lowman’s nervy performance. His deactivating ordinariness, interacted through matter-of-fact cadences and naturalistic line delivery, premises the whirlwind romance in availability we can all relate to.
Yet there’s constantly a current of knowledge and observational insight rippling below Park’s self-deprecating asides that signals a maturity most wouldn’t connect with an angsty teen. Malhotra depicts somebody painfully knowledgeable about occupying social margins while staying defiantly himself – giving Park psychological armour for his lovestruck vulnerability.
Their Synergy Unbound
Individually, both narrators kip down elegant, tour-de-force performances that would make their characters enduring in audiobook form. But it’s the method their vocals join and respond to one another that takes the savage charm of Eleanor & Park to transcendental new heights.
Park’s more laconic speech rhythms ricochet off Eleanor’s spiralling strength like binary stars magnetically drawn into one another’s orbit. His gradual bonfires of ardour simmer versus Lowman’s operatic, atmospheric cascades of elation and suffering. Their union is the extreme manifestation of kindred spirits created forever linked by dedication yet consistently torn apart by circumstance.
Through their indelible connection, Lowman and Malhotra viscerally interact with the intense euphoria and tsunami of devastation that first love undoubtedly births. Just as the source product itself became the spiritual text for the hopelessly obsessed and lovelorn, their vocal symbiosis will leave listeners likewise intoxicated for many years to come.
Soaring Production Complements the Narration
A hallmark of the finest audiobook experiences involves deft production and mixing that boosts rather than distracts from the vocal talents. The Audible Studios team has masterfully accomplished that – covering Lowman and Malhotra’s efficiencies in an aural ambrosia of hushed intimacy.
The crackle of cassettes spinning for Eleanor and Park’s latest mixtape presents echoes strongly throughout. Each whispered confession and shared revelation resonates with pinpoint clarity and immersive tangibility. Without ever overpowering the central narrators, subtle atmospherics transfer you straight into the cosy sanctuary of the school bus or Eleanor’s chaotic home on a cent.
A Testament to the Healing Power of Love
At its essence, Eleanor & Park is a poignant celebration of 2 damaged, marginalized souls finding the profound recovery forces of love, and approval and having one’s inner galaxies finally reflected through another’s gaze. The fact that Lowman and Malhotra’s soaring vocal odyssey achieves this with such heartrending credibility is a miracle in itself.
Their synergy appears practically fate-forged – predestined to become the conclusive interpretations for recording a whole generation’s catharsis and validation for what it truly implies to experience soul-scorching puppy love. This audiobook exhibits the skyrocketing possibilities when the ideal mix of source and narrators intertwines as spiritual twins. Hold it near your heart and never let it go.
