October 8, 2008

The John Cheever Audio Collection

Rating:
Awards: Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2004 Audie Award Finalist
Author: John Cheever
Narrator: Meryl Streep, George Plimpton and others
Category: Fiction
Publisher: Harper Audio
Release Date: 2004
Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
Unabridged

An Overview:
Chosen from the Pulitzer Prize winning compilation. The John Cheever Audio Collection features 12 of the famed short story writer’s works. Elegant is a word often used to describe John Cheever and his writing. A master storyteller, his precise sentences resonate with longing, tragedy, disillusionment, and hope. Well-known voices narrate these slice of life portraits that examine themes of mortality, emptiness, and beauty. This collection also features 2 stories read by the author who died in 1982.

In “The Enormous Radio” the familiar voice of Meryl Streep portrays Jim and Irene Westcott who purchase a mysterious new radio. Much to Jim’s dismay and Irene’s interest, the radio picks up the discussions and arguments of their fellow apartment dwellers. Irene takes comfort in the belief that she and Jim are nothing like their bickering neighbors, however, she soon finds they are not as different as she thought.

Blythe Danner’s reading of “O City of Broken Dreams” captures the wonder and heartache of the Malloy family who journey to New York City with the promise of fame. After reading his first act, producer Tracey Murchison promises Evarts Malloy a contract for his play. The stars are quickly dimmed in his eyes as he encounters the self-centered high class world.

The deep, thick voice of George Pimpton mirrors the mood set by elevator man Charlie in “Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor”. With each elevator trip, Charlie’s wealthy passengers offer a “Merry Christmas’ to which he laments that Christmas is not such a jolly season for a poor man like himself.

He eventually makes up stories about his nonexistent wife and children. The tenants respond with a generosity Charlie could not have imagined: trays of food and beautifully wrapped packages for him and his family, forcing Charlie to rethink the poverty of his own situation.

Set in the wealthy New York suburbs, “The Swimmer” is the final story in the collection. Neddy Merrill, a man of the upper class decides to swim 8 miles home through a series of his neighbor’s swimming pools. As the story progresses we learn about Neddy, his family, and the decline of their position as he shows up in his neighbor’s backyards. Cheever’s dry voice reinforces Neddy’s emptiness as he pushes his physical limits to complete this journey of his own making.

The other stories in the collection are “The Five-Forty-Eight”, “The Season of Divorce”, “The Brigadier and the Golf Widow”, “The Brigadier and the Golf Widow,“ “O Youth and Beauty”, “The Chaste Clarissa”, “The Jewels of the Cabots”, and “The Death of Justina”.

The Narration:
The stories are delivered by multiple narrators including Cheevers himself.

Audiobook reviewed by Georgia Sparling