Jimmy Carter Narrates New Recording Of Poems
Books on tape
Jimmy Carter probably made a better president than he does a poet.
And there are, no doubt, some nasty folk who will contend that isn’t saying much. But even they will have to admit that hearing the President from Plains read his simple verses touches a chord.
Carter narrates “Always a Reckoning” (unabridged at 1 hour, $14) in a new Random House release. They are simple poems and easy to enter because they sound more like prose than complicated verse.
He writes of the day, early in adolescence, when his two boyhood friends, who were both black, unexpectedly opened a pasture gate for him and stepped aside so he could pass through first. That inspired, as the book title suggests, a reckoning. He wasn’t sure what had prompted the move, but he reflects with sadness that he knew that from then on, nothing would ever be the same between them.
He writes of a friend and neighbor, Ruth Carter, who would take him fishing and teach him the art of life. And how she used to advise him when she was a public housing resident and “I was working in Washington.”
(He does not get into the question of why a personal friend of the president of the United States would be stuck in public housing, why someone of his comparative wealth didn’t bail her out, but I guess that’s not the point.)
He writes of his family - Miss Lillian, Rosalynn, his father, his son - and places he has been.
Carter narrates simply, modestly and effectively.
Angelou’s ‘Phenom Woman’
Carter’s work makes a great companion to another soul-felt audio - Maya Angelou reading five poems celebrating women and titled “Phenomenal Woman” (15 minutes, $7.95).
This is a “tour de force” performance, leaping right off the tape. Angelou is both sassy and reverent, saucy and serious, inspiring and, above all, full of fun. She sounds like a friend I’d like to have.
Listening to Carter’s poems made me feel like I ought to try to be a better person. Listening to Angelou’s poems made me feel like I ought to go out dancing.
Waller’s ‘Border Music’
Robert James Waller reads ‘em as fast as he writes ‘em. He does the narration for his new novel, “Border Music,” for Time Warner AudioBooks (6 hours, $24). The company has introduced a new packaging term for this: A “light abridgment.”
A look at sport
For everyone who liked the late Harvey Penick’s little golf books - or, actually, maybe for those who didn’t - Bantam has produced a comic take-off by Leslie Nielsen, the “Stupid Little Golf Book” (one hour, $10.99). Dubbing himself the “world’s greatest bad golfer,” he has filled this audio with “useless wisdom, spurious reminiscences and pointless tips,” including how to “fudge your way to victory.”
Those who still like Penick’s serious advice, Simon & Schuster has produced “For All Who Love the Game” (abridged to 1.5 hours, $12), subtitled “Lessons and Teachings for Women.” The narrator is Jack Whitaker.