Play Us A Story

The holiday season, with its multi-generational celebrations that inevitably involve memories of childhood, must for many persons like myself bring back reminders of being read to. I suspect that many children today hear more stories read by other voices than their parents’, but at least part of the loss in intimacy is made up for by the enormous range of available titles.

Even the generational gaps, with luck, can be closed. As a pre-season example, I was able to save a college-age friend of a member of my overextended family from possible academic humiliation by warning him that his plan to avoid a piece of required reading by relying on the photographic splendor of “The Last of the Mohicans” in all its color and action on the screen might get him into serious trouble. Not only that, but I was happy to tell him that if he still wanted to avoid the printed page he could rent from Recorded Books an unabridged, highly effective narration by Larry McKeever that would be full of surprises for him. I had experienced something similar myself, because my own father had been a highly selective reader of Cooper, smoothly skipping over the descriptive passages to the next bit of action, with the result that I was startled by the length of this novel when it showed up on one of my required reading lists in college, though I did at least know which sister was engaged to Major Heyward.

“The Last of the Mohicans” has found a place in a group of perennial favorites that span more than one generational gap, though most of the others have long since been ignored by the academy--even in courses dealing with “popular” fiction. Grandparents may enjoy trying out a favorite or two on their descendants. There is something unfailingly appealing, for instance, in “Anne of Green Gables,” Lucy Maud Montgomery’s 1908 “book for girls” that must have been read in secret by many an older or younger brother. Perhaps it is the universal appeal of the “foreigner”--in this instance an orphan--making a place in a family, especially when that family was under the impression that it was adopting a boy and not, as it turns out, a girl. The Canadian writer’s most popular novel is movingly narrated in all its hilarity and occasional pathos by Barbara Caruso (Recorded Books).

Another tale from the same period (1911) is Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “The Secret Garden,” which gives effective range to the redoubtable Flo Gibson’s narration from Recorded Books and a more decidedly British voice in Penelope Dellaporta’s reading from Books on Tape. Here again the isolated child’s theme is central, with young Mary Lennox, orphaned in India, sent back to Misselthwaite Manor in Yorkshire. Here in the remote setting of the moors she finds not only her reclusive uncle, but also his neglected invalid son, her cousin Colin. And then she comes upon the locked gate that will lead to a credible happy ending.

A suitable transition to a somewhat later generation could be one of Recorded Books’ new releases, Annie Dillard’s “An American Childhood,” narrated by Alexandra O’Karma. Like the earlier works, it reflects aspects of childhood that are close to being universal, and in this instance with distinctly American associations. Even for those of us who may not believe that “childhood was the best time to live,” it evokes the past and joins it to the present.

Science fiction provides another generational bridge. The recent death of Fritz Leiber--long an elder statesman and master craftsman in the field--sent me back to “The Wanderer” as narrated by Norman Dietz (Recorded Books). With the moon colonized and the earth enjoying an enhanced existence, everything is threatened by the appearance of a gigantic orb--”the wanderer”--during a lunar eclipse. But why? It is up to Lt. Don Merriam to find an answer.

All generations of sci-fi fans will respond to such established classics as the works of Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. The latter’s “Childhood’s End” deals with the last generation of mankind on earth and remains a favorite. “Across the Sea of Stars” is a collection of 18 of Clarke’s short stories. And if anyone needs an introduction to Asimov or wishes to renew memories, both “Asimov’s Mysteries” and “The Best of Isaac Asimov” are available. (Both of these writers’ works are read sensitively by Dan Lazar for Books on Tape.)

Younger listeners may be receptive to a tactful suggestion that science fiction has a history reaching far into the past. If so, and without reaching too far into the “olden days,” one of H.G. Wells’s novels could be a useful introduction. Something like “The Invisible Man” as narrated by Vicki Morgan (Recorded Books) could lead to further explorations.

But as we all know, holiday reunions are iffy events. “Hope for the best, get ready for the worst, and take what comes,” goes the old saw. As if you were given a choice! After attempting this sort of generational survey with its proposed overlappings, I thought it wise to go beyond my own immediate family, whose youngest member is a widely read 22-year-old. So, turning to my already mentioned overextended family, I asked the youthful mother of its youngest embers, aged nine and six, just what books they had most enjoyed listening to recently. After brief reflection she said, “As a matter of fact, I think their most recent favorite--they both really enjoyed it--has been ‘The Kitchen God’s Wife’ by Amy Tan, read by herself” (Audio Prose). So there you have it--the holiday season remains as Tan-talizingly unpredictable as ever.

WHERE TO ORDER CASSETTES

Recorded Books: 270 Skipjack Road, Prince Frederick, Md. 20678 (800) 638-1304. Purchase or rental.

Books on Tape: P.O. Box 7900, Newport Beach, Calif. 92658 (800) 626-3333. Purchase or rental.

The American Audio Prose Library, P.O. Box 842 Columbia, Mo. 65205. (800) 447-2275. Both abridged and unabridged versions available. Purchase only.