The History of Sound, Ben Shattuck, author; Ben Shattuck, Zachary Chastain, Paul Mescal, Dion Graham, Ellen Adair, Steven Jay Cohen, Jim Seybert, Dawn Harvey, Chris Cooper, Rebecca Lowman, Jenny Slate, Ed Helms, Nick Offerman, narrators.
This book, with its 12 seemingly random tales, will captivate the reader as they ultimately connect. The narrators are superb with each playing their role perfectly with tone and emphasis. The story rolls out very calmly and lyrically with mellow voices and an interesting cast of characters that are sure to pique interest. When it begins, the reader meets 20-year-old Lionel Worthing and David White. It seems that Lionel has perfect pitch and sings really well. He sings for David who is a musician and composer. Together, in 1919, they decide to spend the summer traveling to collect songs from people.
Following this introduction, the author begins the other stories and finally continues with one called the Congregation of the Children of New Eden, which might be called a religious cult with a fanatic leader named Karl Dietzen. It follows that the now 84-year-old Dr. Lionel Worthing has written a book on Karl Dietzen, the founder and leader of the New Eden religious colony. A woman named Annie happens to be watching a television show with Ted Rosen who is interviewing Lionel about his new book. She recognizes his name on some papers she discovered in a secret compartment located in the floor of her new home. She also finds cylinders that are strange to her. They had actually been used to record music in David and Lionel’s day when they were looking for people to give them songs. Annie calls the realtor who sold her the house and explains that she might want to return some of the belongings left behind by the former owner, Belle LaSalle. It turns out that Belle is actually the widow of David White who traveled with Lionel to find songs in the summer of their youth. The connection grows.
Each tale is a tender, going back to the 1600’s and extending into the present day, complete with the mention of the pandemic, as it examines all of humanity and asks some important questions about life; one is, is life boring, another is, is this all there is to life? For sure, they are worthy questions to contemplate as we grow old.
Life is challenging and each of the chapters is unique as it touches on the ills a society is heir to and that its citizens suffer, even as they think they have achieved success and happiness. Among the subjects explored, there is romance, fidelity, love, experimental sexuality, fanatic religion, religious cults, the consequences of aging, parental failure, home life, dementia, lies, secrets, trust, regret, loss, remorse, child abandonment, mental illness, spousal abuse, longing for something else or dreaming of more, and wondering if what you have achieved is truly the end of your life’s experiment. Is life in or out of our own control? Are we doomed to be controlled by others? Is there really such a thing as kismet? Although it sounds deep and dark, it is not because it is written with a light and lucid touch.
The stories are all about relationships, positive and negative. The characters all seem to be questioning their place in life. Have they made the right choices? Were they beyond their control? Could they forge ahead and change their way of life, or are they doomed to live with their first decision once it is made? Is first love the beginning of their new lives or the end of their old ones? There is a lot to contemplate on these pages. Is Lionel Worthing right when he says television has ruined the world, made it antisocial, shut people off from each other? It is funny, I have often blamed air conditioning because it shut out the outside world and enclosed everyone in their own cocoon.
When does the living of life end? Which age has the most interesting life? Which generation over the last three centuries enjoyed life more? So many of the characters feel that they have nothing more to gain, nothing more to live for, but isn’t that a choice one makes when deciding how to spend each day? It is a choice the reader will be left to consider. It is far better to make the choices that let us live life to the fullest, than to give up and wait for the end.