Biography
| Video George Guidall narrates | |
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Guidall is from New Jersey. [1] His family name is Shapiro, his stage name is Guidall a permutation of Gedalyah, his Hebrew name. [1] Guidall's father was a pharmacist, and his four brothers also went into the medical profession. [1] Guidall bucked the trend and went into theater. [1] He received a master's degree in social work in his 50s, going on to provide counseling during the day while acting at night. [1] He heard about audiobook narration through a fellow actor. [1]
Guidall lives in White Plains, New York and narrates his works in a small basement studio in nearby Irvington, New York. [1] He typically takes 3 to 4 days to complete a book. [1]
His narrations include Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow in 1986, and then again in 2014 as a new recording. [7] Guidall said the book took about 1 month working full-time daily and was one of his most difficult works. [5]
Guidall says he reads all his books beforehand and seeks to understand the book, not to just impart information but emotion and performance. [5] Guidall says many narrators are "just reading out loud. They don't have an emotional underpinning. There’s a rhythm to speech in terms of what's implied. If it's raining in the book, there’s got to be something about the voice that evokes the rain." [1] Guidall says audiobook narration "expands the author's intent, brings it into an immediacy. I am the author when I'm doing it. I'm a literary hermit crab finding a home in someone else's imagined truth." [1]
Guidall provides occasional presentations at libraries called "The Art and Artifice of Audiobook Narration". [1]
