Johnny Williams

If you think about it, every great book has serve a cause. There was a reason it was written and a reason why it became popular. The book “Black like Me” by John Howard Griffin is a prime example. It was an outcry for social justice when there was none. One would like to think that people read it, because we all profoundly wanted things in America to change and they have to some extent. The Feminine Mystique changed the lives of women every where by opening up their eyes to the manipulation that had been going on for decades to create the loving “housewife” who would be happy at home taking care of the kids. While puttering through the web pages of audible.com, I fell upon what might be the very book that will open up people's minds about what it is like to be a gay man trapped in a marriage with kids to someone you don't love as a spouse, and how the desire to be with someone that you do love and can love with time becomes overwhelming. The name of the book is “Living in Daddy's Closet”. It is written in from the point of view of the main character's son hence the title. It is told with an extraordinary sensitivity and sense of humor. Some of the chapters where the main character, Arlan Johnson is trying desperately to hide his homosexuality are absolutely hysterical. However the main point, that the son's hits on in the book, is that he (the son) wanted his father to be happy no matter what and it was something that his father could never be. Unless he had been allowed to be with the person that he had really loved. The book states with saying verbatim that people should be allowed to marry the Person they love, it will make for a happier world all around. Interesting enough the main character is black and his family makes great sacrifices for him to have a “normal life” in the 50's and 60's, so there is a contrast of civil rights and gay rights. What they want for him as a black person, you have the feeling that they would not grant him as a gay person.

This version of A Christmas Carol has to be the best when all is said and done. John William Cawthorne, a fantastic reader and actor, plays all roles and gets all of them absolutely right. It is hard to believe the one man can go from character to character in such short spans and bring a book to life the way he has. We are making it a family tradition in our household to listen to it every Christmas. Last but not least the price is also amazing, and I think there is a mistake because it says abridged version but my family and I followed it with the book this Christmas and it seems to be the unabridged versions unless they are publishing this exact abridged version at Peguin Books.

My son had to do this poem for the Christmas pageant, and having this recording really help him. He took on the british accent and pick up all the intonations of the actor in the mp3. It was truely wonderful and all the parents and the teacher at the school were calling him a genius and a true star. So thank you audible for producing this one. I don't know who gave this less than a five but they are crazy.