Norwood

Listeners may have trouble deciding if this story, first published in 1966, is a witty American classic or an embarrassment. Whatever the opinion, narrator David Aaron Baker does a commendable job bringing the characters to life. Norwood Pratt, an ex-Marine of questionable intelligence, makes one bad decision after another, traveling haphazardly across the country, meeting up with an array of idiots, bigots, and losers. Listeners' skin will crawl at Baker's renditions of the slimy, slick-talking salesman; grit their teeth at the irritating brother-in-law; and roll their eyes at Norwood himself with his ignorant-sounding diction. In spite of the well-drawn character portrayals, the story is difficult to enjoy in the present day with so much casual use of the "n" word. M.M.G. (c) AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine


The author of TRUE GRIT, Arkansas humorist Charles Portis wrote a handful of comic novels of the South, beginning in the 1960s, that have since gained a cult following but otherwise have attracted little attention. NORWOOD, the first of these, concerns the odyssey of a young rube named Norwood Pratt, who, tricked into driving stolen cars to New York, somehow makes it back home accompanied by a new true love, an educated chicken, and a fat British midget. All this unfolds with memorably drawn characters and a deadpan style. Barrett Whitener's crisp diction, expressiveness, and facility with a Southern accent serve him well here. He has an appropriately light touch and brisk pace. We can forgive his few bad line readings, but we wish he had a better grasp of the female characters. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine