Three great audiobooks to listen to during that long holiday drive
pleasure it is to watch bees; and Popo, the carpenter who builds nothing. The dialogue comes in the patois of the Caribbean street, its cadence and beat beautifully rendered by Bahamian-born, American actor, Ron Butler who captures its humor and Naipaul’s nostalgic affection toward the people of his Trinidadian youth. (Blackstone Audio, Unabridged, 5 3/4 hours)
‘THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS’
Women played vital roles in the “Iliad,” notably in that it was Helen’s abduction which caused the Trojan war and Briseis’ appropriation by Agamemnon which sent Achilles into his fatal sulk. Missing from the poem, however, is a sense of the women’s point of view, and that is just what is supplied in all its desolation and heartbreak by Pat Barker in
“The Silence of the Girls.” Literary master of the trauma of battle, Barker recreates the story from the fall of the Trojan city Lyrnessus to shortly after the death of Achilles. The greater part is told by Briseis, a young woman who has watched as her menfolk were slaughtered. She is awarded to Achilles as his “prize of honor,” and her account is narrated by Kristin Atherton in a clear, soft voice that conveys both the resignation to fate and the determination to maintain personhood of a woman reduced from royalty to slavery. In time, Briseis’ version alternates with that of Achilles, passages narrated by Michael Fox who lends them the proper moods of pride umbrage, and devastating grief over the death of his dear friend, Patroclus. (Random House Audio, Unabridged, 10 3/4 hours)