I read this book a few months ago. Being a theatre person myself, the type no one outside my city has seen or heard about, the memoir of one of the legion of hopefuls who hung around Broadway without ever hitting the big time is a story that’s near and dear to me.
That said, the performance of the book doesn’t capture Helene Hanff’s wit and charm, nor her East Coast accent. Her personality isn’t in this reading. It sounds like a marvelous book read by a high school English teacher. The performance doesn’t ruin the book, not by a longshot, but it certainly doesn’t elevate it, either.