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A May Day heyday for listeners
REVIEWS BY SUKEY HOWARD
It all began with a medical mistake, compounded exponentially, making the life of a child bewildering at best and an unendurable hell at worst. And it's all compellingly documented for the first time in As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl by John Colapinto, read by Howard McGillin. When Bruce Reimer, born as an identical twin, was eight months old, a botched circumcision left him without a penis. His confused, young parents, guided by famed sex researcher John Money, were convinced to submit their son to an unprecedented experiment in psychosexual engineering -- surgical sex change, plus 12 years of social and hormonal conditioning. Dr. Money proclaimed its "success" in scientific journals, "proving" his theory that nurture, not nature, determined sexual identity: Bruce had become Brenda. But the reality was very different; after years of torment, nature prevailed and "Brenda," reverted to the sex of his chromosomes. With the Reimer's courage, candor, and cooperation, Colapinto details this harrowing human drama and the scientific machinations involved. It's a powerful story, a powerful audio.
The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl By John Colapinto Simon & Schuster Audio, $24 ISBN 0671047922
And much more fuels David Liss's brilliantly conceived novel, A Conspiracy of Paper. Amid the rowdy taverns, squalid street life, wicked wenches, and thriving underworld of early 18th century London, Liss introduces Benjamin Weaver, a former pugilist and lapsed Jew, who has become a "thief-taker" or, to put it in current parlance, a private detective, perhaps the first. Hired to investigate the possible murder of man who had dealings with Weaver's father, a "stock jobber" (or proto broker) who also died mysteriously, Benjamin finds himself enmeshed in a web of financial chicanery, duplicity, and obfuscation at the highest levels, with a bit of help from the lowest, and threatened at every turn. Liss manages not only to spin an intriguing, historical whodunit, but to describe the birth of the stock market (where "money . . . is replaced with the promise of money"), the first market crash and the hostile, uncertain world Jews had to deal with everyday. The whole is enhanced by Michael Cumpsty's nuanced, multi-accented reading.
By David Liss Random House Audiobooks, $25 ISBN 0375410112
John Grisham's new blockbuster, The Brethren, is a disquieting tale for this election year. The three men, who have commandeered the exalted epithet (usually reserved for U.S. Supreme Court justices), that also titles the novel, are three not very exalted inmates of a minimum-security federal prison. Former judges now among the fallen, they've come up with an entertaining, for them at least, and lucrative scam to spice up the tedium. As their scenario picks up sleazy momentum, we meet the crafty, crippled, aging director of the CIA who will do anything to make sure that our next elected President is irrevocably committed to a mega-military build-up. What do these disparate characters have to do with each other? Just wait, the fun begins as Grisham cleverly knots the plots together. This is good Grisham, and Michael Beck's well-paced reading makes it even better.
By John Grisham BDD Audio, abridged, $27.95 ISBN 0553526847
unabridged, $49.95
May is the month when climbers traditionally begin their summit bids in the Himalayas and as an armchair-only climber, I'm fascinated and mesmerized by the high drama of it all. So I listened, as will other climbers, adventurers, and wannabes, with rapt attention and unneeded adrenaline to the true accounts collected in High: Stories of Survival From Everest and K2, edited by Chris Willis and narrated by four fine readers. The contributions, all but one by the climbers themselves, stretch from the 1930s to the late '90s. The climbing conditions differ, as does the conditioning of the climbers; it's their overwhelming desire to reach the top of the world, and do it at almost any cost to themselves, that never varies. Most don't make it to the summits of these two awe-inspiring peaks. Some of their colleagues, despite the subtitle, don't ever make it back, but they all share their harsh experiences, their exhilaration, and sorrow. Adventure at its highest.
Stories of Survival From Everest and K2 Edited by Chris Willis Listen & Live, $24.95 ISBN 1885408358
Sukey Howard reports on spoken word audio each month.
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