The New York Review of Books - USA (2021-11-21)

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 11

WELCOME TO THEgolden age of
audiobooks. Maybe it’s because
podcasts have given us an insatia-
ble thirst for audio storytelling; or
because companies like Audible
and Libro.fm have made it so easy
to amass digital listening libraries.
Whatever the reason, we have
finally reached an understanding
that no, listening to a book instead
of reading one does not amount to
cheating. And no, audiobooks are
not just some lesser form of a
print book. Given the right story,
the right narrator(s), the right
production, audiobooks can be so
engaging that it’s hard to imagine
absorbing their stories in any
other format — even on a page.

TAKE THE WORKof David Sedaris,
the humorist whose writing broke
into the mainstream in 1992 with
the help of radio. While he has
become a household name for his
essays — hilarious snapshots of
life’s absurdities — he is perhaps
even more beloved for his read-
ings of them. As he himself loves
to point out, his voice, razor-thin
and instantly recognizable, often
gets mistaken for a woman’s. His
comedic timing is perfect without
being expected, and his use of
expletives is as judicious as it is
creative. All of this is on full dis-
play in his latest volume, A CARNI-
VAL OF SNACKERY (Hachette Audio,
17 hours, 8 minutes).It is his second
published collection of diary en-
tries, after 2017’s “Theft by Find-
ing,” this time spanning 2003-20.
Here his reflections alternate
between the tiniest of minutiae
(the characters on “The Wire” are
all “litterbugs”) and major events
both personal and in the world at
large (his sister Tiffany’s suicide,
the election of Donald Trump).
There are vulgar jokes (unprint-
able) and whip-smart one-liners
(“They say that cigarettes take 10
years off your life, but they’re the
last 10 years, so who wants them
anyway?”) that will have you
reaching for pen and paper before
they’re gone. There may be some
disappointment over his choice to
bring in a second narrator, the
British comedian Tracey Ullman.
She reads all the entries written in

England, Australia and Ireland,

infusing the narrative with re-

gional accents Sedaris presum-

ably could never do. With anyone

else’s diaries, casting a second

reader might create an effect like

encountering a split personality.

But not here, perhaps because no

one has a narrative presence quite

like Sedaris’s.

ALONG WITH THE DIARY,another

format that lends itself to the audi-

tory medium is, perhaps obviously,

the oral history. In written form,

these can feel slightly clunky, like

reading a movie script. In audio,

they can become collages of voices,

bringing listeners into a world not

their own. That’s the case with

BOURDAIN: The Definitive Oral Biogra-

phy (HarperAudio, 11 hours, 28 min-

utes),by Laurie Woolever, Anthony

Bourdain’s longtime assistant (or

“lieutenant,” as the traveling chef,

writer and television host called

her). If some of this sounds familiar,

it’s because this is the second book

Woolever has released since Bour-

dain’s death in 2018. (It’s also the

second one I’ve written about.)

Bourdain, with his nuanced world-

view and his insatiable appetite for

all things unfamiliar, has inevitably

become a kind of patron saint to

travel writers like me. But I came

into this listen with some trepida-

tion. Were we — after a handful of

books and a documentary — ven-

turing into full-on hagiography?

Are we better served letting his

legacy speak for itself?

Turns out that this, a chorus of

voices coming from the people who

knew him the way the general

public never could, was exactly

what was missing. Woolever inter-

viewed 91 people for this book,

including family members, public

figures, the friends Bourdain im-

mortalized in “Kitchen Confiden-

tial” and the members of his crew

who traveled the world with him.

Many of those people record their

own sections of the audiobook, and

the end result is perhaps the most

complete and complicated picture

of Anthony Bourdain to date. In

those voices are tributes to his

talent, recollections of his charisma

and explorations of the darkness

that he tried so hard to keep at bay

through (at various points in his

life) drugs, travel, jiu-jitsu, love. It

is, in many ways, an anti-hagiogra-

phy: a collection of voices building

the image of not a saint, but a

human. When the audio faded after

the final words, I started rewatch-

ing “Parts Unknown” from the

beginning. It’s the first time I’ve felt

ready to do so since his death.

FOR A VERY DIFFERENToral his-

tory, but one that is equally bol-

stered by using real voices, there

is THIS IS EAR HUSTLE: Unflinching

Stories of Everyday Prison Life (Ran-

dom House Audio, 10 hours, 17 min-

utes),by Nigel Poor and Earlonne

Woods, the creators (with Antwan

“Banks” Williams) of Ear Hustle,

the first podcast to be produced

from inside a prison. It launched

in 2017, when Poor, a visual artist,

and Woods, who was then incar-

cerated in California’s San

Quentin State Prison, collaborated

to “share the everyday stories of

life in prison and use them to

reveal the connections between

those inside and outside.”

“This Is Ear Hustle” combines

the show’s origin story (neither

Poor nor Woods had any prior

podcasting experience) with new

entries from current and former

prisoners. The storytelling is

conversational and profound,

sometimes hilarious, often heart-

breaking. Considering how voices

can communicate emotions and

thoughts that often go unsaid, it’s

hard to imagine reading, instead

of listening to, a book like this.

And considering the United

States’ addiction to mass incarcer-

ation, it should be required listen-

ing for all Americans. 0

Getting Personal

L ISTEN UP/AUDIOBOOKS/B Y SEBASTIAN MODAK

SEBASTIAN MODAKis the editor at
large at Lonely Planet and was The
Times’s 52 Places Traveler in 2019.

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