MARK TWAIN

This is the audio that accompanies the book that accompanies Ken Burns’s documentary film. Twice as long as the public television original, it elaborates somewhat upon the biographical and critical material that the movie only touches upon. Nonetheless, it is no less superficial, compared to the several superb biographies, popular and scholarly, that have appeared since the author’s death. It’s Twain 101, presented in a jocular, informal narrative, with liberal quotes from its subject’s own writing. The whole relies not a whit on the film’s audio, except for a bit of music. The text is read--superbly--by Bill Meisle. Possessed of a very pleasant, mature voice and employing a conversational volume, he trots through the prose a bit too briskly, perhaps so that the material will fit on no more than six cassettes. Even so, he misses none of the meaning and nicely transitions from narration to quotation. Where he must slow down, he does. He displays, in fact, a fine ear for timing--not necessarily to bring a joke home, but to make the narrative as a whole musical and attractive. Y.R Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2003 Audie Award Finalist © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 02]