Review | Audiobook review: Nick Offerman is a suitably manly narrator for Tom Sawyer
The Parks and Recreation actor hits the right tone for the childhood hijinks in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
By Mark Twain (read by Nick Offerman)
Audible (audiobook)
Nick Offerman is probably best known for portraying the manly Ron Swanson in the excellent HBO comedy series Parks and Recreation. He is the ideal narrator for Mark Twain’s tale of a twitchy, energetic scamp (Tom Sawyer) intent on breaking all bonds (mainly those of his pious Aunt Polly) and tasting freedom whenever possible (swimming, Becky Thatcher, treasure seeking). Stronger undercurrents occasionally disturb the surface hijinks: slavery, racism, poverty, the distant civil war. Offerman’s full-flavoured voice fits my own image of Twain fondly mining his childhood for “the entertainment of boys and girls”. Fine and dandy.