Gods and Monsters

De: Christopher Bram

Narrado por: Joe Barrett

Previously titled Father of Frankenstein, this acclaimed novel was the basis for the 1998 film starring Sir Ian McKellen, Lynn Redgrave, and Brendan Fraser. It journeys back to 1957 Los Angeles, where James Whale, the once-famous director of such classics as Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, is living in retirement, haunted by his past. Rescuing him from his too-vivid imagination is his gardener, a handsome ex-marine. The friendship between these two very different men is sometimes tentative, sometimes touching, often dangerous - and always captivating.

©2005 Christopher Bram (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"A touching fictional portrait of old Hollywood and of one of the curious geniuses who made it what it was.” ( All Things Considered)

Movies marry literature and spawn a monster

Movies marry literature and spawn a monster. Several in fact. This audio version is stellar too.

Horror film buffs, don't miss this one!

Christopher Bram has written a poignant, nostalgic and interior novel about James Whale, the Hollywood director of Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein and The Old Dark House.

The novel is based on real-life figures but Bram invents a remarkable fiction around those facts. James Whale has just come out of the hospital after suffering a stroke that has jumbled his brain. The director is past his prime, living in reluctant retirement, but now there is a new hulk of a man, Clayton Boone, to do the yard work and to divert Whale from the tedium of sickness and old age.

Whale was one of the few out gay men in the Hollywood of the 1920s and '30s. Author Christopher Bram uses Whale's scrambled brain to great effect. The director's memory casts around in time: to his hardscrabble English childhood, the trenches of World War I and the sets of his greatest films. Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester and George Cukor flit in and out of the narrative. And yard man Boone bears more than a passing resemblance to Frankenstein's monster. The storylines of Whale's life blur together.

Whale and Boone are unlikely companions. The old man finagles meetings over cucumber sandwiches and paintings. The maid thinks she knows why and disapproves. But Whale, fragile and mixed-up though he is, knows how to play a role when it suits.

Narrator Joe Barrett is incredible. He does accents well and makes you feel like you're listening to a full-cast recording.

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