We are veering away from mainstream audiobooks this week with an odd collection of short stories, an offbeat self-help audiobook about death, and an intriguing look at foreign lands.
Notes on A Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World
Suzy Hansen; read by Kirsten Potter
HighBridge Audio, nine CDs, 10 hours and 30 minutes, $34.99/www.audible.com download, $24.49
Finding herself disillusioned in her 20s, journalist Hansen moved to Istanbul and traveled widely in Greece, Pakistan, Turkey and the Arab world. She did not like what she discovered about American imperialism and neither may you, but her credentials and deep research back up her conclusions. Hansen approaches this work, which is part memoir and part political analysis, with imagination; if nothing else, your horizons will be broadened. Narrator Potter was the perfect choice for this sober material; she is calm and clear and keeps the pace moving along. This is not for everyone, especially listeners who take a jingoist view of our country. Grade: A
Jagannath: Stories
Karin Tidbeck; read by Kirsten Potter
HighBridge Audio, four CDs, four hours, $29.99/www.audible.com download, $13.99
Admittedly, this is a weird collection of short stories, but some are actually quite wonderful. Tidbeck, a Swede, returns to the dark fables and folklore of her youth in tales that can be sparse but often memorable for their strange and sometimes twisty plots. They range from magical and treacherous forest creatures to women who grow babies in tin cans. Potter’s narrative style is calm and quiet. She sounds natural and never emotes. Her method works well, as a more robust performance could have overshadowed Tidbeck’s nuanced approach to fiction clearly pulled from a limitless imagination. Grade: A-minus
Dead People Suck: A Guide for Survivors of the Newly Departed
Laurie Kilmartin; read by the author
Macmillan Audio, four CDs, four hours, $24.99/www.audible.com download, $17.49
This is one weird little audiobook. It is listed as a self-help title, and it does contain some useful information to help you cope with grief, but there is also a lot of black humor, some of which is quite funny and some more distasteful. Comedian Kilmartin put the audiobook together after the death of her father, and it includes live clips from comedy shows as well as straight narration. The quality is erratic, as different locations were used throughout the production. However, she does know how to land a joke, and her straight narration can be quite heartfelt. Perhaps not for the newly bereaved, but worth hearing, especially if you have aging parents. Grade: B
