The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb

Thirty-two-inch tall Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Bump may have been little in terms of stature, but her ambition was seemingly boundless. Narrator Kim Mai Guest's small voice is fitting for this diminutive nineteenth-century celebrity who capitalized on her size by employing her intelligence, drive, and calculating disposition to become a famous performer in P.T. Barnum's shows. Vinnie's personality characteristics are apparent in Guest's performance as she imparts a precise eloquence and a slight haughtiness to Vinnie's speech. Guest also captures P.T. Barnum's business acumen and "General" Tom Thumb's well-meaning but dim character. This fictionalized autobiography employs snippets of historical headlines, which Guest trumpets in an old-fashioned style. S.E.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

March 21, 2011
Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Warren Bump, the diminutive wife of Gen. Tom Thumb, narrates her life story in this vivacious fictionalized autobiography that takes her from a small New England town to a seedy Mississippi showboat and eventually into the entourage of the impresario P.T. Barnum. Born with proportionate dwarfism, Vinnie, a "perfect woman in miniature," rejects a career as a schoolteacher in favor of show business, eventually finding an intellectual soul mate in Barnum and international fame that leads her into the opulence of New York society and meetings with heads of state from the White House to Europe and India. Benjamin (Alice I Have Been) centers the latter half of her tale around Vinnie and Barnum's odd-couple friendship and touchy business relationship, sometimes glossing frustratingly over Vinnie's own adventuresâa three-year tour of Australia and Asia is given only a few pagesâand leaving the last 40 years of her life untold. But the smart and unyieldingly ladylike Vinnie emerges as an effervescent narrator with a love of life and a grand story worth the price of admission.