Wicked. That’s what T. Coraghessan Boyle is.
Gleefully wicked, in fact.
And don’t his readers love it?
In his latest novel, “The Tortilla Curtain,” he paints parallel portraits of two couples–politically correct Californians wrestling with their distrust of immigrants, and a starving Mexican couple who sneak into the United States to try to make a new life.
They live within walking distance of each other. The California couple is in a fancy community with swimming pools and cocktail parties and gourmet dinners and debates about whether to erect a wall. The Mexican couple is camping out in the nearby canyon, sleeping on a ragged blanket, drinking from a polluted stream and hiding whatever money they earn–and can keep from being stolen–under a rock.
For all their whining and carrying on, good things keep happening to the Californians. And for all their optimism, bad things keep happening to the Mexicans. It’s classic Boyle that the woman is named America, and her husband is Candido, after the Voltaire character with the improbable array of misfortunes.
The story is about as bleak as it gets, and for that reason it’s rigorous going, listening day after day. But somehow it’s also compelling, thanks to Boyle’s wit and ever-shimmering writing style.
If Boyle has been compared to Dickens before because of his vivid characters and his tales well-told, now he moves into the realm of Swift with satire about as biting as it gets.
In the past, the only audio versions of Boyle’s novels were three-hour abridgments. Listeners had the benefit of hearing Boyle read them himself, which is a treat, but we never got the whole thing.
Last year, Books on Tape started to catch up with unabridged recordings of a few older Boyle novels. And with “The Tortilla Curtain,” both BOT and Recorded Books have done recordings.
Each is true to its company philosophy. The BOT recording (15 hours, $80 purchase, $12.95 rental), is blander, less interpretive. Michael Russotto reads. Recorded Books’ Barbara Rosenblat turns in a performance worthy of the stage (13.5 hours, $79 purchase, $17.50 rental). Take your pick.
But each pronounces a central character’s name differently. The California wife is Kyra, and Russotto pronounces the first syllable to rhyme with “ear,” as in “KEE-ruh.” Rosenblat pronounces it to rhyme with “eye,” as in “KIE-ruh.”
Somebody’s wrong here, and for no good reason.
It’s not as if Boyle lives on a different planet–although sometimes his razzmatazz might make it seem like he does. All they had to do anyway was shell out a measly $16.95 to pick up the abridged version, published by Audio Renaissance last fall, because Boyle reads it himself in his trademark animated style.
Sure enough, there he is, pronouncing it KIE-ruh. The first syllable rhyming with “eye.”
Pronouncing it wrong is really slipshod. If the industry keeps this up, there goes the credibility of audio.
Fast forward: David Suchet, the definitive Hercule Poirot on public television, reads an unabridged version of Agatha Christie’s first Poirot novel, “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” (6 hours, $22.95) for Audio Partners.
Anne Rice keeps churning them out, and producers keep recording them. Michael Cumpsty reads the abridged version of her latest, “Servant of the Bones” (4 hours, $24) for Random House.
