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Audiobooks
When it comes to Abraham Lincoln, classical music, Andy Warhol and Truman Capote, there is always something new to learn.
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For many, the word “studying” conjures unpleasant memories: of impending exams, caffeine-fueled all-nighters, the frustration of just not getting it. But what if we reimagined the word in the context of the lifelong learner, not as a chore but as the channel to a joy that can be had from staying with a single subject for hours, from revisiting it again and again, even when you think there’s nothing else to learn? Treading mostly on well-trodden ground, three new audiobooks prove that no matter how much you think you know about a subject, there’s always more to study — in a way that isn’t a drag.
In the world of American history, there is perhaps no genre more written-to-oblivion than the presidential biography. So it was with some trepidation that I approached AND THERE WAS LIGHT: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle (Random House Audio, 17 hours, 49 minutes), by the Pulitzer Prize-winner Jon Meacham. What else is there to say, I wondered, about one of our most studied, most written about, most fiercely debated figures in our nation’s history? A lot, it turns out. In a calm, deliberate narration that matches the crispness of his prose, Meacham zeros in on Lincoln the human being. We learn of the books and pivotal experiences that shaped his moral outlook and his eventual emancipation of the country’s enslaved people. We learn of the conversations — both internal and otherwise — that were a constant backdrop to the history Lincoln was making.
As Meacham points out, many historians are concerned with whether Lincoln truly was the “Great Emancipator,” a saintly figure with a lifelong commitment to equality and liberty; or simply “a white American man engaged in the accumulation and exercise of power,” leaning on morality only when it was politically convenient. Meacham takes a measured approach, unafraid to point out the moments when Lincoln capitulated to political pressures, like when he decided “to stay on the conservative side of antislavery” in late 1861-62, as the Union faced mounting losses. But on the whole, Meacham’s meticulously researched portrait reveals a man who, while riddled with imperfections and inconsistencies, genuinely believed in the human instinct to do good. “To see him only as a political creature,” Meacham says, “is to give the means of his life priority over its ends.”
Meacham’s comprehensive history (there’s nine hours of tape before Lincoln is even elected president) will certainly equip you to hold your own next time you find yourself in conversation with a Civil War buff. But what about that friend who is always talking about his latest night out at the philharmonic? For a refreshingly quick and actually fun study guide to the intimidating world of sonatas, symphonies and Schumann, listen to DECLASSIFIED: A Low-Key Guide to the High-Strung World of Classical Music (Penguin Audio, 6 hours, 48 minutes). The writer Arianna Warsaw-Fan Rauch, who narrates the book with the easy nature of a best friend, uses her own story as a Juilliard graduate and professional violinist to bypass the gatekeepers of this wide-ranging genre.
Warsaw-Fan Rauch is no longer a touring violinist, but her journey in and out of the often cloistered world of classical music provides the narrative foundation on which she is able to break it all down. In her words: “You’ll leave these pages with enough expertise to join the ranks of those insufferable connoisseurs who’ve been scaring you away from this music for all these years — only, you won’t join their ranks, because you will know better.” By the end of the audiobook, listeners will understand why the Dorian mode of music is “the single most depressing thing mankind has ever invented,” how classical singers are similar to Australian sugar gliders (they require attention to survive), and how to decode classical pieces’ “obnoxiously complicated and sterile titles.” The audio format makes it easy to pause and listen to a piece as it is mentioned — though I wish this production had incorporated some of the music directly into the audiobook. The audiobook does come with some very handy PDFs that include listening lists, dirty letters written by Mozart, and more.
Some of the most entertaining sections of “Declassified” make you feel as if you’re a fly on the wall in conservatory auditions, cutthroat competitions and the obsessive practice routines of professional musicians. In WARHOLCAPOTE: A Nonfiction Invention (Simon & Schuster Audio, 3 hours, 22 minutes), we are flies on a very different wall. Adapted by the director Rob Roth, this play is based on 80 hours of tape recordings of conversations between Andy Warhol and Truman Capote, originally recorded in 1978. As an audiobook, “WarholCapote” is an astounding document, perhaps even more powerful — considering its source material — in our ear than on the stage. Each of these two giants of the arts has been written about extensively (in one memorable exchange, Capote raves at length about a New York Times Magazine profile of him that had just been published). But what “WarholCapote” newly reveals is a portrait of a relationship — a platonic but deeply loving one where every topic, from the purpose of art to the latest celebrity gossip, is worth parsing through. In the audiobook performance, you’ll think Stephen Spinella’s portrayal of Warhol (try counting every time he uses “God” as a drawn-out exclamation of surprise) and Dan Butler’s childlike whine as Capote are overblown — until you stop and look up a clip of what they really sounded like.
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