The Member of the Wedding
by Carson McCullers
(read by Susan Sarandon)
Bloomsbury
(audiobook)

Inspired by last week's Bloomsbury A-List double-header of Nicole Kidman and Dustin Hoffman, I checked out another collision between Hollywood and audiobook. Here, Susan Sarandon (seen most recently in Jeff, Who Lives at Home) reads Carson McCullers' 1946 novel, The Member of the Wedding. The star is pitch-perfect for this tale of alienation and escapism in a small southern American town. Frankie Adams' disaffection with the world is beautifully rendered by Sarandon's twangy, ironic tones: 'Frankie had become an unjoined person who hung around in doorways, and she was afraid.' Spending most of her time with other outcasts (the family's African-American maid, her cousin), the 12-year-old dreams of hitching a ride to Alaska with her beloved but newly married brother. But this remains a dream, and Frankie is forced to contend with her remote father, and her sense of an adult world she is not yet ready for. Sarandon catches McCullers' sensual prose and her dark themes - race, gender, sexuality - yet also conveys the hope she offers - the fine line between independence and isolation, numbness and feeling.