Grover Gardener: The Return of The Stand

This is good!  Grover Gardner, who has narrated LOTS of audio books, was the reader of both the abridged and unabridged editions of The Stand.  In a recent blog post, Gardner discussed the recent recording of the 1990 version of The Stand.

Mr. Gardner graciously gave me permission to reprint his blog post here.  It comes from Grovers Audiobook Blog, and was originally posted on February 14, 2012.  

The Return of The Stand

by Grover Gardner

Well, it's out on Audible today--Stephen King's The Stand. This is not the edited version I recorded twenty-five years ago, it's the complete, uncut edition published in 1990, all forty-eight hours of it! It took four weeks to record, and I had to pace myself so I wouldn't sound fatigued or thread-bare at any point. I'm pleased with the recording, though I'll be interested to see how it holds up against the earlier version in the memories of King devotees. The old version was only available on cassette and has been out of print for a decade or more. I still get emails from people asking if I have a copy they could borrow and duplicate for themselves. Alas, no, I never got one. But now there's no need. The new version is complete, and in my humble opinion I'm a better narrator than I was twenty-five years ago, so I was delighted to have a chance to re-record it.

There are few better writers for audiobook narration than Stephen King. He gives you all the right cues, creates wonderful characters, keeps the story moving and injects emotional twists and surprises at every corner. Never a dull moment in the booth with this guy.

The odd thing is, as I read the uncut version in preparation, I found that I remembered very little of the story and the characters. The opening scene remains vivid--the clunky old Chevy containing the first victims of the superflu plowing into a lonely little gas station in rural Texas. And I remember Randall Flagg (who could forget Randall Flagg?). But beyond that most of the book felt completely new to me. Perhaps it was the added material that threw me off, I don't know. But it's just as well, since there was no temptation to replicate any voices or characters or moods from the earlier recording. What you hear is as fresh as last month, not a recycled rendition from 25 years ago.

I'll be interested to see what "the critics" say. The proponderance of male characters seemed to hail from the Midwest or Southwest, so there were an awful lot of "good ol' boys" to sort through and make distinguishable. The most difficult characters for me were Harold and Frannie. Harold is a pimply, overweight, pompous-sounding 16-year-old, not an easy person to replicate. And eighteen-year-old Frannie is the emotional core of the book, enormously smart and feisty, but extremely vulnerable--and pregnant. I played around with a Maine accent for her and it sounded just awful, so I let my native East Coast tones predominate. A fifty-five year old man is already handicapped in this regard, and I didn't want her to come off as a caricature. So she's voiced in a pretty straight-forward manner. I gave her father and some of the other Ogunquit characters a dose of down-east, so hopefully that will placate the die-hards.

My favorite character, of course, is Tom Cullen (who doesn't love Tom Cullen?). In the uncut version he really gets fleshed out, and it's truly wonderful to experience his transformation from a fool to a hero. In one critical scene I took a risk that, under normal circumstances, I would have avoided like...well, like the plague. But to do other than what I did seemed like such a cop-out that I took the plunge. I'm curious to see if anyone even notices--and whether they like it or hate it.

But by far the biggest, most overwhelming challenge, of all the challenges in a story so fraught with them, was that of coming up with seventy-plus ways of saying, "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" It seems that every character, at some point in the book, shouts or screams or bellows or rasps the word, "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Anyway, it was a terrific experience and it's great to have the story out there again for everyone to enjoy.
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reposted from March 2, 2012

Still No Audio

reposted from 2012

 

Here are 3 books that still have not found their way to the world of audio books:

1. The Dead Zone
2. Pet Sematary
3. Rage
. . . of course, I'd even listen to The Cannibals on audio, if it existed. I was enjoying that book!

4 books that are endangered species:
(That means they are hard to find, almost disappearing off the face of earth)

1. The Mist, read by Frank Muller. Muller did a recording of The Mist unabridged, and it was great! However, there seems to be copyright problems with the recording, and who knows if it will ever be seen available to the public again.

2. The 1978 edition of The Stand read by Grover Gardner. I think these only existed as tapes.

3. The original King readings of the Dark Tower 1-2. These were great! King's reading was a joy, even though it was obvious he was nervous.

4. An actual physical CD copy of The Stand. It's available on audio through audible, but difficult to find as a CD.

Regarding audio books, I think the happiest I have been was when Needful Things came out.  I bought each set of tapes and spent hours in my room listening while I played solitary monopoly.  (Yes, I'll tell you the rules if you ask).

Doctor Sleep Journal #7: I'm Scared

Went running alone for the first time in quite a while.  It's hard to make myself run with no one accompanying me.  On the good side, I did have Doctor Sleep.  It's been a few days since I listened to Doctor Sleep, so  here are my thoughts:

This book is really scary at moments.  Out running as a dead body was uncovered was just down right creepy.  I was running past desert fields, no lights out here, just the moon and a King novel in my ears.  As that body was dug up I was actually pretty excited.  "Wow this is scary," I thought, looking out toward a dark field. 

Slow
Second observation is that the book moves slow at points.  So slow that characters  I thought were dead are still on their deathbed!  However, I accept that as part of reading a Stephen King novel.  I'm not sure I want him to write fast paced thrillers.  King takes his time telling a story, relishes the scenes and the careful build up.  It's worth the journey, even if there are moments I wish he'd drive a little faster.

NOOOO!
Grover Gardner, who read both audio versions of The Stand once noted that it seemed every character in the book had at least one time when they cried out, "noooooooo!"  When reading Doctor Sleep, I had a personal "noooooo!" moment.

There is a point when Danny tells what happened to him at the overlook.  I was totally excited to get a first person account of the terrors in that hotel from Dan's perspective.  The Shining was written thrid person, so to get to see it through Danny's eyes -- even for a few pages -- would be awesome.  But as soon as Dan begins telling his story, King cuts away then drops back in as Dan wraps things up.   It seems like it would have been an opportunity to add another layer to a story we already dearly love.

THE STAND JOURNAL 1: Drawn To The Stand

I am back to The Stand.  Hello old friend!

I dived  head first into The Dark Tower, and read with eagerness the first two books.  I started the third when we decided to take a family trip.  Given the options: The Stand or The Wastelands, my daughters chose  The Stand.  (Yes, those were the options.)  They like the movie, why not the book?

Since then, I have been listening to The Stand everywhere I go.  I should  go  back to The Wastelands, but I can't break away.  The story engrosses me even still.  I read the abridged version recently -- via Mr. Gardner.  I am thrilled he did the reading again.  If anything, his performance is even stronger and crisper. 

Reading The Stand this time is like being reunited with old friends.  I feel this  way when I read Pillars of the Earth for the 100th time!  Stu, Larry, Fran and many long forgotten small characters reappear in all their glory to live out the story one  more time. 

I have not read the unabridged version since high school.  There are scene's I really don't remember -- I must have skimmed!  (Okay, I know I did.)  For instance, the scene with Franny's mother was brand new to me. 

King does something I appreciate: He casts characters who hold  moral positions different from his own in a positive light.  He doesn't always stereotype   In particular, he shows a depth of understanding when discussing abortion and the pro-life position.  I believe King is strongly pro-choice, so I cringe when a character goes to discuss the pro-life position   Are we about to get a straw-man argument?  Is he just out to make pro-lifers look dumb?  Well, that's not what King does at all.  He allows a sympathetic character to lay out the view without feeling the need to insert a counter  argument. 

Peter Goldsmith says,

“I think abortion’s too clean a name for it,” Peter Goldsmith said. His lips moved slowly over each word, as if they pained him. “I think it’s infanticide, pure and simple. I’m sorry to say so, to be so ... inflexible, set, whatever it is I’m being ... about something which you now have to consider, if only because the law says you may consider it. I told you I was an old man.”

It's not a scientific case study, just an old man's opinion. But it takes guts for a writer to allow a character to hold a view contrary to their own without painting that character a nut case.

Small nods to the larger Stephen King universe are more evident to me this time.  When I read the novel the first time, it was the first King book I ever thumbed my way through.  I was unaware that King connected his books.  In particular, I was struck by the use of The Shop -- which comes from Firestarter.

Stephen King has an unusually strong grasp on people and characters.  I often find myself agreeing with observations he makes about people -- but surprised that such observations came from what was at the time a young man.  Larry does a lot of introspection.  It is a powerful scene when his mother reveals to him that he's just a user.  Now what's neat is having read the book already, I know that Larry will overcome that trait.  He will take his stand for what he believes is right.  A sign of a good novel is that characters evolve and grow.  That is certainly true of Larry.

Also when it comes to Franny's parents, King does a remarkable job portraying a couple in grief.  Peter has moved on, but is sympathetic to his wife -- who is lost despair and selfishness.  The scene where Peter holds a mirror to his wife's behavior and shows her what she's really like is quite good.  I suspect it would have come across melodramatic had it been included in the mini-series.  But it the writing carried it and did what screen could not have.

Books Read By Stephen King

Who is your favorite reader of the Stephen King audio books?  I have two non-King favorites.  First Frank Muller is great.  His pacing is fast, which I like!  Also, I have come to appreciate Mr. Grover Gardner.  At first I really struggled with what some said was a "dry" reading style.  But I came to see that Gardner is precise and clear in his reading, giving power to the words themselves to tell the story.

I also think Craig Wasson is an excellent reader.  He takes almost the opposite approach of Gardner.  If Gardner wants the words to speak for themselves, Wasson wants to bring them to life!  He reads with energy, passion and sometimes his passion becomes distraction.

I really like it when Stephen King reads his own stories.  I'm not sure I would want to listen to him read Ken Follett novels!  But he's a great Stephen King narrator.

1. The Gunslinger.  I recently bought the audio tape of Stephen King reading The Gunslinger.  I love it!  King is awkward at first, but gains confidence as he goes.  He starts with a short introduction, pointing out that he is not a professional reader, but he thinks there is value for a writer to read his own work.  I generally agree -- if the writer is a good reader!  Some writers should stick to writing.  Frank Peretti comes to mind!  The author of the Christian classic, "This Present Darkness" has the frustrating habit of breaking into falsetto.
By the way, the photo of a young Stephen King with a mustache is great.
2. The Drawing Of The Three.  I like the cover of this audio book a lot,  by the way.  I can't find the artwork  anywhere else, but it is great.
3. The Wastelands.  I've never seen this, but according to King's site (Ms. Mod), he read the first three books of the Dark Tower series.
4. Bag of Bones
5. On Writing (nonfiction)
6. Building Bridges.  (Speech)
7. Blood and Smoke (Lunch at the Gotham Cafe, 1408, In The Deathroom)
8. It Grows on You (story)
9. Needful Things.  This is my favorite Stephen King reading.
10. Harvey’s Dream (story)
11. Hearts in Atlantis (w/ William Hurt)
12.  LT’s Theory of Pets (live reading)
13. Head Down (essay)
14. The Wavedancer Benefit
15. Rose Madder (the part of Norman Daniels)  (?)
16. The Wind Through The Keyhole
17. Home Delivery (story)

Bruce Baugh: Review Of THE STAND Audio

I enjoyed Bruce Baugh's review of THE STAND.  He gives attention to both the audio reading and the novel itself.  He kindly gave me permission to reprint his review here.  Thank you, Mr. Baugh!  You can find the original posting at his journal, titled "Young Enough to Look At, and Far Too Old to See."

Enjoy!  -- I did.

2012 book log, #8: The Stand, by Stephen King


A few words on the reading first. Gardner's excellent. He's been in this line of work a long time now, and he's really mastered the craft. The Stand is a book with a very large cast, and he distinguishes them all. Not all the characters with a Maine accent sound the same, nor do all the Californians, and so on. He produces a startlingly deep but entirely suitable drawl for the Kid, and in the passage where Nadine Cross remembers her first experience with a Ouija board, he gets pitch-perfect the effect of a college girl imitating Boris Karloff and Bullwinkle. His pacing is great, and he captures emotions clearly without exaggeration. 


Now about the book itself. I must say up front that this is one of my favorite novels in the world. I loved it when it came out. I loved it all over again when the expanded/restored edition came out and gave me several hundred more pages of the character development that's the heart and soul of the story. I re-read it every few years, and like it every time. Did this time, too. The rest goes behind the cut tag.


If you're not very familiar with the book, this is what happens: An engineered strain of super flu escapes from the lab where it was developed, and in a few weeks kills about 99.4% of the human race. The survivors find themselves drawn into an sort of post-apocalyptic apocalypse, with a not-really-a-man figure of incarnate evil and those drawn to him by bonds of fear and desire pitted against the forces of good, centered on the oldest living woman and an unplanned circle of (mostly very reluctant) leaders. Complications ensue, a lot of them.


But for all Stephen King's love of good plot and storytelling, this really is a book of character of studies at heart, I've always thought. All the best moments, with a very few possible exceptions, are about the characters in and after crisis - what they do when forced to do something, and how they think about it, and how they try to live with it, and what they try to do next. As is usual with King, there's more decency than real villainy, and when decency fails, it's more often because of fear and lack of knowledge about alternatives than because of actively appreciating harm in means or ends. 


This is a story that puts young people in very prominent roles. It's more obvious to me now that I am myself no longer a young person :), and it was a little obscured in the lumpy but sometimes first-rate TV mini-series adaptation. Frannie Goldsmith is 21; Harold Emery Lauder is 17. Stu Redman is in his early 30s, Larry Underwood still in his early 20s, Lloyd Henreid about the same. I have no particular commentary about this, I just find it really interesting.


Two things did bug me this time around.


First, it's a really America-centric book. It's like Canada and Mexico don't even exist. I know that King does Americana, and he often does it brilliantly. But the book felt weak for lack of that presence of the rest of the continent. I can understand giving no space to what's going on in the United Kingdom, or Afghanistan, or Australia—once air and sea travel collapse, followed by the rest of the infrastructure, they're off in their own stories. (And there's one brief mention that Flagg thinks there may be others like him elsewhere in the world. Now I want to write that story and/or run that game.) But c'mon, there are highways and big open spaces and all that stuff to this country's north and south. Strike out and you can't really help getting to the next country along unless you hit a wall or fall into the water. 


Second, King was at the time very much writing with a male reader in mind. Several passages have "you'd see this and think" kinds of setup that aren't at all what a woman, or for that matter a non-straight man, and in several cases any person of color, would think. There's only one bit of authorial projection through a character that really clunks for me (Larry Underwood's version of Stephen King's own fondness for '60s rock 'n' roll; Larry should be a glam and arena kind of guy, I always thought); it's the outside-the-character digressions that make me think of all the people those passages aren't aiming at. He's grown on this, though. Speaking of young people, he wasn't yet 30 when he got this thing rolling, and of course now he's rather older, and he's made real conscious effort to grow his awareness. It would be interesting to see how he'd do the project now, if it wouldn't be such a massive effort that I'd really rather he put into new stories to entertain me with. :)


I enjoyed it, as I always have, and continue to recommend it highly.

The Stand Audio now available

The Stand became available on audio today.  HERE is the audible edition.

47 hrs and 41 mins
Read by Grover Gardner

Yes, I am very happy. 

Now, wher is Pet Sematary?

1978 The Stand Journal 12

I like this picture.  Photo credit: http://www.freakingnews.com/Stephen-King-Books-Pictures--69-2.asp

Grover and Me:
I just finished the last tape of The Stand.  Yes, I listened to it.  It was read by Grover Gardner, and was fantastic.  At first Gardner seemed stiff, even dry, I found that I really liked him as the book progressed.  We became fast friends!

Gardner reads with a certain reserved energy.  Though he does not overpower the story, he is very engaged in what he is reading.  As one blogger commented, Gardner doesn't get in the way of the book!  He doesn't try to outperform the story. 

His voice is crisp, every word pronounced correctly, and well paced.  His inflections are always appropriate, but again, not distracting.  I think Gardner is quickly becoming one of my favorite readers!   

Pacing The Conclusion:
The Stand ends with a bang. . . and then it keeps going.  I really like the way King ended the Stand.  He didn't simply tie things up with the bad guys demise -- he spent time (considerable time) letting us see the world after Flagg.  The conclusion (a good hundred pages, I think) includes Stu and Tom meeting back up, and Tom's nursing Stu back to health.  It is touching, and again, not rushed.  Even in the chopped version I was reading, King gives this section room to breath.  He doesn't feel in a hurry to end the book -- and the reader isn't anxious for it to end, either.

The long journey home for Tom and Stu is the highlight of the last chapters of The Stand.  But there is more even after they reach the Free Zone.  Will Stu and Fran stay?  What about Larry's child?  On that note, what about Fran's?  Will the super-flu knock out the next generation?  These are things King deals with nicely in the last pages of The Stand.

I have read many reviews of The Stand, and no one ever mentions how much space King gives his characters at the end of the novel.  Usually King spends considerable time building characters at the beginning of a book; but here he lets us live with them a little bit longer.  Further, I have heard many people say they do not like the way King ends his books.  Try the Stand!  I think it is brilliant.  Though the "plot" has been carried out, King still sees more story ahead.  And the reader can imagine a million stories that could come out of The Stand.  It is surprising no one has thought to do a TV series based on the world of The Stand. 

Nukes And Our Children
Stu and Fran discuss the issue of bringing children into this new world.  But it's not really a "new" world!  In fact, the "toys" (kings word) are left behind -- nukes.  Two things need to be destroyed: The nukes, and the plant that created the super-flu. 

Now it's interesting that nukes are seen as the problem, since the essentially saved the Free Zone's hide.  There is a hint of anti-war sentiment that flows throughout The Stand.  Not that good should roll over and refuse to fight, but simply a fear that by over-building our military complex, we might be forcing our children's hands.

God:
God turned out to be a pretty important character in The Stand.  When The Bomb actually goes off, it is unclear for a moment if God did it, or Flagg did it!  Flag was playing with a blue ball of fire when Trashy showed up with his toy.  It is that same ball of fire that strikes the bomb.  But later dialogue makes it clear that it was the work of God.

What kind of God do we encounter in The Stand?  At the mid point, Fran paints the picture of an evil God who would destroy so much of His creation.  But as the Stand progresses, we begin to see a purpose unfolding.

God's will is a major theme of The Stand.  God is portrayed as Sovereign; beyond our understanding, and able to tell the future.  God is shown as active in the affairs of men (he is not far off, unconcerned with us).  Now here's an interesting theological note: In the Stand, God is willing and ready to act.  He is completely capable of stopping evil.  He is not threatened by Flagg.  But before he will act, he requires that men also take their Stand.  He desires to use humans as much as possible in order to carry out His will.  Glen Bateman puts it together for us, saying "If there's a God, and I now believe these must be -- that's his will.  We're going to die and somehow all of this will end as a result of our dying."

God is not only presented as all powerful, but as Just.  Tom Cullen puts it pretty succinctly when he says, "It was the bad man killed Nick.  Tom knows.  But God fixed that bad man.  I saw it.  The hand of God came down out of the sky."  Now why did God kill the "bad man"?  Tom tells us!  "Fixed him for what he did to Nick and to the poor judge.  Laws yes."

Nods in other King works:

• Freemantle: Mother Abigail's last name is Freemantle.  In Duma Key the main character is named Edgar Freemantle.
• Hemmingford Home is also the setting for 1922.  It is the hometown of Ben from IT.  Hemmingford Home is also seen in The Last Rung Of The Ladder.
• In Wizard and Glass, Blane The Mono stops in the world of The Stand. 
• Night Surf sort of serves as a prologue to The Stand.
• The evil character Flagg appears in The Eyes of the Dragon and The Dark Tower.  If he is the Devil himself, then he is also in Needful Things.
• Wikipedia notes something really cool: "In the denouement, Stu and Tom happen upon an abandoned Plymouth Fury with the initials 'A.C.' engraved on the keychain. Arnie Cunningham was the owner of the 1958 Plymouth Fury in Christine. The car is found empty with no apparent driver."
• Wikipedia points out that radio signals from Arnette, Texas, are also heard in The Tommyknockers.
• And. . . "Charles Decker's teacher in Rage, Mrs. Jean Underwood, is said to be a relative of Larry Underwood."
• Finally, Wikipedia says that "Stuart Redman has a dream of a corn field with a creature with red eyes staring at him, this is a reference to "Children of the Corn".

1978 The Stand Journal 3: Audio edition

picture: Sharon holds volume 1-2 of The Stand.

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My wife bought me the Stand on audio tape, read by Grover Gardner. I'm really enjoying it! She had the tapes sent directly to a company that converts tapes to CD. They also put them on MP3 for me.

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We used: Thick And Mystic Media to professionally transfer the material. http://www.audiomover.com/ They did great! The sound quality is superb (these tapes were pretty old, and there are absolutely no sound issues thus far). Each chapter serves as a separate track.

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If you want it on CD, you have to actually buy the audio tapes and then transfer them. However, Ms. Mod at stephenking.com answers the legal question of transferring your tapes to CD as follows: "That shouldn't be an issue because it's for your own use but it's the people who are making multiple copies and selling them which is clearly violating copyright laws that we have a problem with." http://www.stephenking.com/forums/showthread.php/15950-The-Stand-on-CD

It appears that when this was originally recorded, unabridged recordings were not sold in mainstream book stores. It was more popular to abridge recordings for mass sale. So the unabridged books were primarily for libraries -- catering to the blind.

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So far, the book is fantastic. I've read this edition once before, but it was years ago.

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Details:

• The audio tapes are broken into two volumes.
• The first volume has 11 hour and half cassettes. It originally sold for $88.00. (2163-A)
• The second volume has 12 hour and half cassettes. It originally sold for $96.00. (2163-B)
• Both volumes say "collector's edition." I do not know why.
• The recording was done by books on tape.
• The reader is Grover Gardner. I like his reading very much. He has recorded a lot of books -- some of them absolutely massive! Like Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. He also recorded The Dark Half.

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Grover Gardner, the Stand

I recently purchased The Stand on audio tape. I am waiting for the company I paid to put it to CD and digital formats to send it to me. I can't wait! I have been mentally preparing myself to read The Stand again. This reading is of the original 1978 version, and was narrated by Grover Gardner.

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Now part of preparing to listen to the 1978 version of The Stand has to do with the reader, Grover Gardner. I first listened to a recording my Gardner of a theology book, and decided the reading was dry. So when I later listened to the Stand, I went in with the opinion that Grover is a dry reader. But then I read the theology book I had been listening to... and guess what -- it was still dry! I realized: It was not Gardner's reading that made it boring, it was the writer! Perhaps the material was too basic for what I was expecting; in any case, I came to the conclusion that maybe I hadn't given Gardner's reading a fair shot.

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So here I am again. Planning to read The Stand with Gardner as my guide. I went to his blog and really, really enjoyed it! He has a wonderful article on authors reading their own books. this is funny: "I am familiar with at least one instance of a famous politician who required literally thousands of edits because he couldn't read a whole sentence (no, it wasn't "W") and another case in which a celebrity author didn't make it through her ghost-written autobiography because she couldn't pronounce most of the vocabulary and wasn't familiar with the events and people as related in the book!"

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Check out Gardner's blog here: http://grovergardner.blogspot.com/