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Audiobooks Narrated by John MacDonald
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WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND THE PRIX DU MEILLEUR LIVRE ÉTRANGER
The Centaur is a modern retelling of the legend of Chiron, the noblest and wisest of the centaurs, who, painfully wounded yet unable to die, gave up his immortality on behalf of Prometheus. In the retelling, Olympus becomes small-town Olinger High School; Chiron is George Caldwell, a science teacher there; and Prometheus is Caldwell's fifteen-year-old son, Peter. Brilliantly conflating the author's remembered past with tales from Greek mythology, John Updike translates Chiron's agonized search for relief into the incidents and accidents of three winter days spent in rural Pennsylvania in 1947. The result, said the judges of the National Book Award, is "a courageous and brilliant account of a conflict in gifts between an inarticulate American father and his highly articulate son."
This engaging and sympathetic biography reveals the prolific founding father who Thomas Jefferson described as "the greatest man in the world." We see Madison the legislator, writer, Secretary of State, president, and elder statesman. Perhaps most importantly, we see a man who believed implicitly in the mutual dependence of democracy and individual freedom and whose life was guided by this philosophy. Accordingly, our constitutional guarantees of civil and religious liberty are in many ways his legacy.
"In this very human portrait of Madison and his role in the early, problem-fraught years of the new republic, [Rutland] not only depicts him as a fervent patriot, combining 'erudition and common sense,' but recounts his goals and frustrations, victories and defeats...."-Publishers Weekly
Set during the Depression in the depleted farmlands surrounding Augusta, Georgia, Tobacco Road was first published in 1922. It is the story of the Lesters, a family of white sharecroppers so destitute that most of their creditors have given up on them. Debased by poverty to an elemental state of ignorance and selfishness, the Lesters are preoccupied by their hunger, sexual longings, and fear that they will one day descend to a lower rung on the social ladder than the black families who live near them.
Caldwell's skillful use of dialect and his plain style make the book one of the best examples of literary naturalism in contemporary American fiction. The novel was adapted as a successful play in 1933.
"Caldwell's book is...well served by this classy performance, which manages to highlight the realism amid the rambunctiousness."-AudioFile
First published in 1952, Witness came on the heals of America's trial of the century, in which Whittaker Chambers accused Alger Hiss, a full-standing member of the political establishment, of spying for the Soviet Union. In this penetrating philosophical memoir, Chambers recounts the famous case as well as his own experiences as a Communist agent in the United States, his later renunciation of communism, and his conversion to Christianity. Chambers' worldview''man without mysticism is a monster''helped to make political conservatism a national force. Witness packs the emotional wallop and the literary power of a classic Russian novel and has gained Chambers recognition by critics on both sides of the spectrum as a truly gifted writer.
'One of the few indispensable autobiographies ever written by an American'and one of the best written too'. It deserves to be recognized as a first class achievement.''New Centurion
This magisterial and lucid history of America from its beginning to the present is recommended listening for all Americans, as well as for foreigners seeking historical wisdom and insight. Alden's approach is broad and inclusive, covering literature, thought, and things social as well as political, economic, and military. This superb panoramic history provides our listeners with a wonderful and entertaining opportunity to learn about the remarkable American adventure.
Blackford Oakes launches a wild attempt to kill Castro on behalf of the CIA.
Ever since the botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs, Fidel Castro has run amok. He has executed thousands of his enemies, driven his countrymen to emigrate, and done everything possible to run Cuba into the ground-all in a deliberate attempt to humiliate the White House. At least, that's how the situation looks from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, where hatred of Castro has grown into an obsession. Under orders from John and Bobby Kennedy, the CIA will do anything necessary to kill Castro-no matter how ridiculous.
Even-tempered CIA agent Blackford Oakes is dismayed at the agency's wild schemes, which include everything from poisoned wet suits to Mafia hit men. But the evil of Castro's regime is not a joke, and Oakes won't be laughing when he tries to knock the dictator off his throne. "Arguably, this is the best of the Blackford Oakes series. Since we first met him at a callow twenty-six, in Saving the Queen, Oakes has matured-he's become more worn around the edges, less abrasive and, as a result, more likable...This high-flying thriller is grounded in reality, thanks to Dorothy McCartney, research editor of the National Review, whose help Buckley acknowledges. Readers will enjoy the sheer exuberance of this all too plausible caper."-Publishers Weekly
