ESSENTIAL TWAIN

In this Caedmon reissue of a 1969 recording, Begley—whom older listeners will recall as a veteran character actor—reads a section of LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI, Twain’s recollections of learning to pilot a riverboat. Begley plays Twain as an old man reminiscing (though Twain was only 48 when the book was published), declaiming in a rhetorical manner and a moderate drawl. He gets at the humor of a man looking back on his callowness and his loss of innocent wonder. The sound, at the same time flat and hollow, is substandard, though not terribly off-putting. But while this is a moderately entertaining hour or so of Twain, there’s nothing essential about it. W.M. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 07]