Storytelling is a powerful thing, and I have been lucky to be part of the audiobook industry for the last 20 years. I know there are listeners who, through listening to the books I perform, are able to explore their own desires, heal from past trauma, enjoy the pure fantasy of it all or connect with their bodies. This should be applauded.
Narrating erotica literally gave me the words in my own relationships to express the needs and desires I have. It started me on a journey to understand and embrace my body. I found confidence in myself and my sexuality. Eventually I found a partner and relationship that is fulfilling in every way, mostly because we are able to talk about what we want individually and who we want to be as a couple inside the bedroom and out. We both love that we can say the words with confidence.
A tour de force that reminds us why we read fiction and how it can touch our hearts, engage our minds and enrich our lives, Bauermeister’s latest novel melds her imagination, acumen and humanity. And as she embraces the circle of life, she evokes tears, awe and gratitude.
Not since Jonathan Safran Foer’ s “Eating Animals” has a Brooklyn writer made so plain a case for greater sensitivity to the natural world. And “The Vegan,” a pig in a blanket of irony, subversion and humor, is much easier to swallow.
If this all sounds a little heavy, well, it is. And yet Frank never loses his sense of humor, and Richard Ford has not lost his gift for finding the poetry in the tragic, the mundane and even the absurd. Frank isn't interested in persuading himself or anyone else that everything turns out OK for everyone — that happiness can be attained and should be expected or even desired. But his persistent alertness to both the sublime and the ridiculous in everything he encounters suggests that he still finds the trip worth taking. "It's completely pointless and ridiculous, and it's great," Paul says. He's speaking of Mount Rushmore, but he might as well be talking about life.
This is not art historical scholarship of the academic kind – there are no footnotes or references to sources beyond her own feelings and intuition. It is an emotionally informed approach to art, always paying attention to the fact that each person’s vision is different (one of her daughters goes colour-blind as she is writing this book, having stared too long at the sun). Cumming cannot in truth show us new definitive facts about Carel Fabritius, but she brings him out of the shadows, making us see why he is so much more than the missing link in someone else’s story.