ELON MUSK

Walter Isaacson offers a well-researched, if stodgy, biography of Elon Musk--the dramatic innovator and inventor we associate primarily with Tesla and SpaceX. Isaacson himself straightforwardly narrates the prologue without noticeable emphasis or engagement for the listener. Jeremy Bobb then assumes the narration and has his hands full with this weighty challenge. Employing minimal modulation in the somewhat tedious fact-filled text, he emphasizes the darker and more negative aspects of Musk's personal and business personality. Listeners will find it all here--Musk's challenging early life in South Africa, his problematic relationships with his family, and the focused hatred aimed his way for his purchase of Twitter, now renamed X. Bobb embraces the factual, no-nonsense tone of the text but offers little in performance to enhance it. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2023]