Satisfying tidbits, about food and family
Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink
Edited by David Remnick Books on Tape, unabridged nonfiction, 20 CDs, 25 hours, various readers, $96 from booksontape.com, 1-800-733-3000; also available as a download from audible.com; $45.50 unabridged, $20.97 abridged
Mothers and Sons
By Michael Flynn Blackstone Audio, unabridged fiction, seven CDs, eight hours and 30 minutes, $19.95, or six cassettes for $19.95; read by Gerard Doyle; also available as a download from audible.com; $20.97
20th Century Ghosts
By Joe Hill Harper Audio, unabridged fiction, 11 CDs, 12 hours and 30 minutes, $39.95, read by David Ledoux; also available as a download from audible.com; $27.97
People have been reading about food since Biblical times. (Loaves and fishes, anyone?) And now that Books on Tape has released "Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink,'' all those foodies mesmerized by Alton Brown, Rachael Ray, and Emeril can get out of the house, mount their bikes, and pedal away the calories while listening to funny, mouth-watering tidbits by Calvin Trillin, Anthony Bourdain, and M.F.K. Fisher.
One highlight is a funny, touching essay called "A Forager" by John McPhee. Originally published in the mid-1970s, it describes a foraging expedition with Euell Gibbons. Some readers will remember the late Mr. Gibbons as the humorous shill for Grape Nuts cereal, but he also made major contributions to natural gastronomy with his book, "Stalking the Wild Asparagus."
McPhee spent a few days with Gibbons, living quite literally off the land, and the result is both edifying and interesting. It is read with great mastery by Mark Bramhall, who so changed his tone and timbre while portraying Gibbons that it really sounds like two people narrating. Then again, there isn't a story or a narration by the eight readers that is less than delectable.
More serious and extremely eloquent is the short-story collection, "Mothers and Sons," by Irish writer Colm Tóibín. Each of the nine stories is a poignantly rendered look at the relationships between mothers and sons. In each slice of life, he captures that moment when perception changes, when power shifts in the relationship, when each sees the other in a new light.
In "The Use of Reason," a gangster who can easily scare the other bad guys realizes he is about to be brought down by his mother's boozy gossip. At first the irony of the situation is almost humorous, but by the time Tóibín finishes, we understand the gangster's isolation, and where he learned the art of treachery.
Don't listen to these stories expecting resolution or happy endings. In fact, some are outright disquieting in their intensity. This is especially true of the only story set outside of Ireland. "A Long Winter," set in a remote Spanish village, reveals how little we know about our own families. A son who never realized his mother drank watches his father drive her away by destroying her supply of wine.
Narrator Gerard Doyle appears to have understood that this collection is about feelings and characterization and less about plot and action. His pacing and tone are fitted to each tale, and his regional Irish accents sound quite true to American ears.
More was expected from "20th Century Ghosts,'' by Joe Hill. It is not just that he is Stephen and Tabitha King's son, but there was a buzz around this audiobook that was intriguing enough to warrant a listen. It won several awards, including the Bram Stoker Award, Best Fiction Collection, 2005. Many of the stories are worthy of the acclaim, but others are so thin they feel unfinished.
In "20th Century Ghost," the ghost haunting the Rosebud Theater becomes more frightening a visage in both her appearance and her addiction to movies as the story unfolds. On the other hand, "Buttonboy" is so in-your-face gruesome that you can't push it out of your thoughts fast enough. Hill does surprise with "Pop Art," a surreal fantasy in which a boy makes friends with the school outcast, an inflatable boy. One moves past the improbability of the tale to the heartbreak at its core.
The production is polished, with slightly eerie music breaking up the sections. Narrator David Ledoux tackles this with a straight reading unembellished by accent. He captures tension and black humor with pitch and pace. He also has an uncanny ability to sound younger when expressing the words of a boy or teenager.
Rochelle O'Gorman is publisher and editor-in-chief of audiobookcafe.com, an online magazine.
