The Deeply Dislikeable David Irving on trial.

What made the experience of listening to Denial [Movie Tie-in] the most enjoyable?

It is incredible that the likes of David Irving can still deny the Holocaust and the death of six million Jews after the mountain of evidence, film and first hand accounts to the contrary.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Denial [Movie Tie-in]?

How David Irving's dishonest representation of events was unmasked.

Have you listened to any of Kate Udall’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Not listened to Kate Udall before.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

What moved me was the emotional anguish involved in reducing David Irving's version of the Holocaust to banal fiction.

Any additional comments?

Superb narrative with gripping courtroom drama rarely found in a non-fiction work. Well worth the time spent listening.

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2 people found this helpful

Narrator gives overly aggressive tone

I feel the performance gives a more belligerent tone to Lipstadt than is probably warranted. The woman herself seems more reasonable when viewed on YouTube.
Lipstadt is American of course and has a dismissive attitude to "lesser" countries . ( Luckily as a Scot, I can brush off her criticism of English law and society fairly easily but I do think she shows the arrogance of the American supremacist. It's not attractive except presumably to her compatriots in "the land of the free" (define "free" in context of US!).
I'm less enthusiastic about complete freedom of speech (or gun ownership which she doesn't mention but is regarded as fundamental in US).
The opinions expressed by Irving and his ilk are close to the views of IS, and feed the minds of extremist Islamist groups.
I'd prefer to suppress hate speech and hate marches.
There's a whisker between neo-Nazis, IS, KKK. I'd see them all silenced as far as possible.
There is some evidence that exposure to negationist ideas can make a dent in the views of decent folk.
Freedom to poison society is limitation on other people's freedom.

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Brilliant !

An amazing book, of great value. Could not stop listening. Up all night to Finnish this. Brilliant barrister and the court case was totally engrossing.

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Spoilt at end

Having enjoyed the film version and just back from a visit to Auschwitz itself I found the book very informative. However what spoiled it for me (and almost made me fall off my bicycle as I listen to audiobooks when out for a ride) was the final epilogue from Alan Dershowitz who went off on a rant against Noam Chomsky, a hero of mine. This ,coming from a man who was friends with Epstein, made me want to throw up. He adds nothing to the story of the trial and just annoys any reader aware of his links to Epstein, Prince Andrew and that gang. The book would be a lot better without his contribution.

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Theory vs Fact. History in court.

Would you consider the audio edition of Denial [Movie Tie-in] to be better than the print version?

Yes, as a read there may have been times I gave up on it. As a audiobook I felt it flowed more.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The whole defence team, Lipstadt especially. I felt she highlight how the case affected her life and career,as well as expressing how important the case was to the communities she belong to; Jewish, historian etc

Have you listened to any of Kate Udall’s other performances? How does this one compare?

No. But she was perfect for the material, formal yet humane.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Shocked by the whole reviewist approach. Encouraged by Lipstadt's resolve.

Any additional comments?

I've always loved a good conspiracy theory. This book however has ingrained in me the importance of fact based decision making.

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2 people found this helpful

Justice History and the Law

An extremely thorough description of Lipstadt's defence of the defamation case brought against her by Holocaust denier David Irving. Even though the verdict is now a mattter of historical record she manages to capture the tension and uncertainty she experienced as the trial proceeded. A thoroughly bad man Irving exposes himself as much as the defence team reveal is lies, bigotory and grotesque inhumanity.

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6 people found this helpful

Really did not like the narration

Although the content of this book was fascinating and sometimes a grim insight into the deniers mind, I found the stilted narration robotic. It was another trial to just try and zone out the inappropriate pauses & staccato speech and concentrate on the conte

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Deborah E. Lipstadt's heroic defence of the truth

Any additional comments?

Deborah E. Lipstadt's heroic defence of the truth deserves the five star response, and especially so as we are currently living in troubling times when the Far/Alt Right are on the rise again as if the history of humanity has never been heard and learnt.

Holocaust Deniers and Revisionists such as David Irving need to be called out at every opportunity for unless challenged their warped version of history becomes an acceptable truth, and therefore normalises intolerance.

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3 people found this helpful

Detailed, horrifying and sometimes darkly comic.

I must confess I wearied of Deborah Lipstadt by the end of the book: she is a supremely self-righteous, finger-wagging New York liberal, who tends to lapse into self-mythologizing, and has an irritating habit of using "right wing" as synonymous with "Neo Nazi". It is however not her, but the historians and lawyers of her team who did the heavy lifting of going through all the horrifying details of the holocaust, and systematically demolishing the lies of the deniers, who are the real heroes of the story. The preposterous blend of moral relativism, naked lies and half-truths taken out of context, which constitute the snake-oil of Holocaust denial; are all systematically dismantled by the relentless precision and research done by those who worked diligently to defeat the sometimes farcical attempts of Irving and his fellow fantasists to sow doubt in the minds of ordinary people about basic historical facts.

This is a *very* detailed account of the trial, and of the events of the holocaust. It's certainly not an easy listen, but it will give you all the ammunition you'll ever need to demolish the insidious chipping away at truth that will sadly continue long after the first hand witnesses are no longer alive to give first hand testimony. I'm a hard-line free-speech advocate, but this issue tested my commitment to that principle to its very limits.

The narrator is competent, and TBF it is not an easy book to narrate due to the endless reams of detail.

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Very interesting story, but not the best narration

Enjoyed learning about how the trial unfolded and the book is very through in debunking the monster that is Irving. However the narration is poor. To often there's a computer dubbed in, its like being read to by Siri in parts.

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