Thanks again to The Neglected Books Page for last year’s mention of the release of two of William Gaddis’ works, J R and The Recognitions, on audiobook. I have just started listening to J R and I’m captivated by Nick Sullivan’s performance. Oh yes, the book, too. I can’t recommend both of these performances by Sullivan enough–they are outstanding.

While listening to J R I was reminded of the line from Educating Rita (the movie, I haven’t seen the play) that seemed appropriate: “In attempting to resolve the staging difficulties in a production of Peer Gynt I would present it on the radio because, as Ibsen says, he wrote it as a play for voices, never intending it to go on in a theater. If they had had the radio in his day, that is where he would have done it.”

Previous comments on the audiobook version of The Recognitions can be found here and here.