HOUSE OF EARTH

Famed American singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie wrote a powerful portrait of Dust Bowl-era Texas in 1947. Recently discovered, the novel was published on the centennial anniversary of Guthrie's birth. Douglas Brinkley performs the novel's lengthy introduction, cowritten and edited by Johnny Depp. The material provides historical context for both The Great Depression and Guthrie himself, who was "living his art" by championing the dignity of the downtrodden. Narrator Will Patton enlivens the novel with a vernacular twang and a range of expression that makes Guthrie’s characters fully believable. In the arid Texas Panhandle, a young couple struggles to build an adobe home on a plot of leased land. Agribusiness and banks foil their endeavors. Patton provides a good flow to the vivid descriptions of rural realism and progressive activism, peppered with sexually explicit passages. A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2013]