FLAUBERT'S PARROT

Richard Morant is the perfect narrator for this unusual and much loved early work by Julian Barnes. The novel, if novel it is, is told in the voice of a rather crabby English widower, a doctor named Geoffrey Braithwaite, who has become obsessed with Flaubert, his memory and his legacy, and especially with which of two possible stuffed parrots is the one Flaubert kept on his desk as he wrote a story featuring a parrot. The accent of an educated Englishman is essential for Braithwaite, as is a well-polished French accent, and Morant has both. But most important is his skill in making the text lively, in inhabiting Braithwaite's obsessive inner world with interest and attention. A most welcome addition to Barnes's audio oeuvre. B.G. [Published: AUGUST 2014]