November 2007
THE LOWE DOWN ON AUDIOBOOKS
by Jonathan Lowe
First
up this month is longtime radio dramatist Garrison
Keillor, among the funniest men I've ever interviewed.
Heard nationwide by travelers everywhere, this host of
the Prairie Home Companion possesses
the gift of creating--spontaneously--characters who possess
all the eccentricities inherent in Scandinavian immigrants
and depressed, old school Lutherans. His latest, PONTOON,
is a novel of just such inventions, born of rigorous observation
and a nostalgia for small town America. But you need a
framework for such rambling humor, so here the town of
Lake Wobegon is planning a wedding that includes a flying
Elvis and a pontoon boat (symbolic for newlyweds "about
to take a journey.") To spice up the proceedings,
a delegation of "renegade Lutheran pastors"
have arrived from Denmark. and while one old biddy is
preparing to die, her daughter is more interested in having
a dalliance at the Romero Motel. Often compared to Mark
Twain, Keillor also reads the novel, which is more like
a series of vignettes--wry, ironic, and full of calculated
surprise. His now legendary voice drifts, sometimes wearily,
among all these shipwrecked souls like a pilot out of
life preservers. And yet there is empathy and identity
here, rather than pity, and so in his own way Garrison
points out that any victims among the residents are floating
in a pond, not an ocean. Chronicling their innocent insanity
with long practiced timing, Keillor ultimately reveals
how invisible we can be to each other--and to ourselves.
(Highbridge Audio; 8 hours unabridged) AMAZON |
Lorna
Landvik is author of a bestseller with the offbeat
title "Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons."
Her new novel THE VIEW FROM MOUNT JOY
is not quite as eccentric, but as read by the ideally
matched Robertson Dean, is more universal and therefore
endearing. The story follows Joe Anderson, a teen hockey
player who grows up to be a town grocer, while the girl
he lusted for in high school moves on to become rich and
famous. Joe has settled down and settled in, yet he still
yearns for what might have been with the seductive Kristi
Casey. . . until Kristi returns to town one day, and Joe
realizes that his own life is the more meaningful. It's
an old story with a modern retelling, and yet somehow,
either by chance (or by what I hope is deliberate choice),
the teller of the tale has been picked for his ability
to elevate and enliven the text with his unusually sensitive
yet self-assured delivery. (Random House Audio; 5
hours abridged) AMAZON
|
Next,
Dick Francis is up for yet another horse
racing linked mystery titled DEAD HEAT,
written with his son, about a restauranteur named Max
Moreton, whose latest catering job goes awry when undercooked
kidney beans cause illness, and threaten his next job--an
exclusive luncheon for guests at a high stakes horse race.
When that race is terrorized by a bombing, Max's complications
multiply, and lead to an investigation involving the transport
of drugs inside the wombs of mares. The story moves slowly,
as most "cosy" English mysteries do, but the
benefit of moving slowly is that one has time to notice
the scenery. Helping with that is narrator Martin Jarvis,
whose inimitable poise and inflection give the tale a
stately and refined aura. Jarvis is not only a character
actor in Hollywood, after all, but is also invested with
the Order of the British Empire for his services to drama.
(Penguin Audio; 10 hours unabridged) AMAZON
|
Can
anyone fault DUNE, one of the most beloved
classics of science fiction? True, there have been other
performances than the current 2007 release from Audio
Renaissance. Imitators of the original story have been
many as well--both in film and on TV. So is there anything
to criticize in this latest production, whose audio values
include the talents of narrators Simon Vance, Scott Brick,
Euan Morton and Orlagh Cassidy, among others? Not really.
Particularly intriguing is the occasional introduction
of quotes, offset by moody music, that punctuate the production.
Although I still puzzle on Frank Herbert's
choice of the names "Paul" and "Jessica"
and "Duncan," and his borrowing of Shakespearean
entanglements and ambience, yet if you're going to borrow
from anyone for a epic story, who better than the Immortal
Bard of Avon? Certainly Star Wars borrowed from Dune,
as its more modern influence. As you may know, the continuing
saga of Dune neither starts nor ends with Paul Atreides
as the Muad'Dib duke who commands the sand worms of Arrakis,
and although the star of the movie version is now acting
on "Desperate Housewives," the award winning
original novel--if not the entire series on audio--will
outlive any shallow television series. As true literature
usually does. (Audio Renaissance; 22 hours unabridged)
|
Finally,
C. J. Box has penned an unusual mystery
in FREE FIRE, about a lawyer who kills
four environmental activists in Yellowstone National Park,
then walks away on a technicality involving a slice of
land where the murders occurred--a "free fire zone"
of overlapping jurisdictions, where a jury cannot be found
since no one lives there. When public outcry begins to
burn his ears, the governor hires former game warden Joe
Pickett to investigate, and the solution to the how and
why of the crime involves investigating Yellowstone itself.
Narrator here is actor David Chandler, whose straightforward
approach rings true as a documentary-like unfolding of
the story. At times you feel like John Wayne is narrating,
without the accent. Luckily, the tale is not unbefitting
for John Wayne, so a reader the likes of mystery specialist
Richard Ferrone isn't required. (Recorded Books; 10
3/4 hours unabridged) AMAZON |
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