Making It So: A Memoir, written and narrated by Patrick Stewart (Audiobooks.com)
Be still, my heart. Sir Patrick Stewart’s life in his own
words, in his own voice.
I put a hold on this audiobook months before it became
available. My library purchased extra copies to accommodate all the requests.
To say the wait was worth it is an understatement. The memoir details a
fascinating life and an exciting, varied, and long career, much of which I was
already familiar with. Sure, I knew Stewart from Star Trek: TNG and its
movies, X-Men, I, Claudius, and other films. But I also had a
passing familiarity with his charismatic presence on the stage. My daughter and
I attended his one-man performance of A Christmas Carol by Charles
Dickens, in which Stewart filled the auditorium with his vitality,
story-telling genius, and ability to make the text come alive as we’d never before
known it. That’s one of the things that stood out for me in his memoir: how he
takes a text and makes it emotionally and intellectually accessible, to take
the sense of the words and bring them alive. (Highlight: Stewart reciting several
of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. This is, of course, to be expected from a
highly experienced veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Theater.
And his voice! We all know that rich, supple voice, although
since Stewart is now in his 80s, it has acquired “age gravel.” But what the
decades have diminished, skill, life experience, and understanding have
enhanced even more. He recounts events with intimacy and meaning, as if he had
been there, which he had.
I also knew that he came from a working-class family, that his strong stance against domestic violence arose from watching his father’s brutality, that he had been a stage actor long before he ventured into film and television, and that he is so secure in his sexuality that he is comfortable being demonstrably affectionate with a close gay friend (Ian McKellen). Which, needless to say, other straight men ought to emulate. There was much I didn’t know, and discovering it in the course of listening became a delight, one I will not spoil for you. Just download a copy or put yourself on the wait list at your library, and enjoy.
I’d heard of John Wiswell, one of the new generation of
splendid young authors, so I grabbed a review copy of the audiobook version of
his debut novel, Someone
You Can Build a Nest In.
Narrator Carmen Rose did a splendid job bringing this unusual
monster/horror/romance to life. On a panel at the recent Nebula Awards weekend,
a speaker referenced this book as a fresh take on the theme of monster as
protagonist, in this case monster as heroic, romantic protagonist. Such
characters hold a mirror to our deepest fears, offering shared humanity as a
path to laying our nightmares to rest. While Wiswell’s book is not an entirely
new approach to the point of view of a monster/villain, he brings a wonderful
combination of grit, darkness, and lyricism to the story.
Monster
Shesheshen, a formless, pluripotent jelly, is rudely awoken from her
sleep in the bowels of a ruined manor by human hunters. Quickly assembling hard
materials to construct human-like body parts (a metal chain for a backbone, old
bones for limbs, and so forth), she disguises herself as a refugee. The ruse
works for only a short tome. The hunters are relentless, driven by the
obsessive local nobility who, as it turns out, have their own share of horrendous
secrets. Badly injured during a chase, Shesheshen experiences her first taste
of kindness when a rejected daughter of the noble house rescues her. Bit by
bit, step by step, they each heal one another. The monster’s quest eventually
becomes how to build a life with, rather than inside of, the love of her life.
And to survive her murderous in-laws.
It's a gorgeous, inventive, intoxicating love story, filled
with heart-rending truths, self-sacrifice, and gradual unfolding of character.
We should all have such a monster in our lives.
Highly recommended.
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