Winesburg, Ohio

By: Sherwood Anderson

Narrated by: Deaver Brown

Winesburg, Ohio has the most memorable cast of characters in 20th-century fiction. Listeners will remember at least a few stories and their characters for the rest of their lives. Each of the 23 stories stands on its own. Each is also interwoven into the fabric of the book. Winesburg has a special glow, a grace, poignant feelings, and a magical quality. Winesburg moves forward in a cascading fashion to the final chapters with Helen White, the most beautiful and richest girl in Winesburg, and "Departure" with George Willard, the charismatic character instrumental to all the characters, who reveal themselves through conversation - or a lack of it - with George.

The primary characters in some stories become the bit characters in others, much as Tom Stoppard showed that Hamlet was only a bit character in the lives of the hangers on, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Winesburg avoids isms, making it a purely literary work. The only political comments involve characters talking to each other, not pushing political views. Winesburg is not narrowly realistic as in Dreiser's novels. Rather, Winesburg is broadly realistic, because it involves everything good and bad about people and their circumstances.

At first it seems that everyone is stuck in Winesburg. But as you listen, you will notice that most people have been elsewhere or are on a road from or to some other place, either physically or in dreams. The town is vibrant with the "moving on" of American life, both in the character's thinking and doing. For all of these reasons, these characters seem far more timeless than those of more famous 20th-century authors, such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dreiser, Lewis, or Faulkner. Those authors recognized this at some level and, with the exception of Fitzgerald, acknowledged that Anderson was the master from whom they learned. Jack Kerouac may have said it best: "Winesburg sticks to your ribs."

Public Domain (P)2010 Christina Brown

Stories marred by poor, distracted reading.

I have been listening to audiobooks for a long time now, but I'm not sure I've encountered such a graceless, toneless reader before. I can imagine that these stories would be engaging and memorable when read well, but this is an ordeal. At times the reader seems to lose his place, pause, then bumble on in a dispirited way. I didn't mind the 15 minute preamble, though it didn't tell me anything new about Anderson, but the reading itself... sigh... not too good.

Hilariously bad

It would be very hard to find a worse reading (of any book). (Well, some stuff on Librivox is pretty bad, but at least they aren't selling it...) The reader, Deaver Brown, occasionally adds additional words or simply replaces words with his own choices. And a huge chunk of the crucial opening story ("The Book of the Grotesque") is missing, leading me to believe that Deaver accidentally turned two pages at the same time without noticing his error. It is as if no one played it back even once before sending it to press. Lastly, probably the most embarrassing aspect of this reading is that the narrator slowly,carefully reads the *table of contents* and later painstakingly describes an *illustration* in the edition of Winesburg, Ohio that he happens to be reading. It's actually quite funny.

Actually: I've changed my own mind. Buy it anyway & treat yourself to a couple of laughs.

Nearly unlistenable reading

The text of this book is very good, even if the style and content is a bit outdated. But the reading of the text is just awful. The reader begins every sentence twice as loud as he ends, which is barely audible. I stopped listening in order to write this review because I couldn’t hear the endings of each sentence.

Had to get a different version

The worst narrator in the world. Voice was bad, and there was an audible "click" like to a tape machine every several minutes... I am downloading another version, because I know the book is great... This should be removed from the list.

Narrator ruined it

I can't get through the first hour. I couldn't tell if the narrator was making side comments or if it actually was the author. I bought this audible version because it was the least expensive. Seems like a mistake. The book is a classic so "it must be good" and a reliable friend highly recommended it. I may need to read the book on paper. Or try a different narrator.