Audio Lawrence

Attempting to diminish my never-to-be-exhausted store of free credits with audible.com, I've recently downloaded an excellent audiobook version of Lawrence's Sons and Lovers. This may not have been the best choice for quickly getting rid of credits. I've finally made it nearly through part one of two, after over eight hours of listening. At least I'm getting my money's worth.

This particular version is read by Paul Slack, and I would certainly seek out other books read by him. He reads the narration brilliantly, making it easy to follow, and with a nicely Laurentian muscularity, almost spitting out the words intended to emphasize the primal forces of nature and the human body that shape events in the story. And he differentiates the characters' voices very well and effortlessly renders the regional accents.

Since I haven't had many other experiences with Lawrence, I'm trying to listen for what characterizes his writing as "modernist." He is clearly not as experimental with narrative or language as Joyce or Woolf. The story and setting seem to be pure Hardy. But there is a very careful attention to characters' psychology (and unconscious) that you only see taking form but not being fully realized in Hardy. Here it is fully realized, to say the least. Clearly there is the influence of Freud, particularly in the relationships between mother and sons. At times I feel a little uncomfortably transported back into my 18-year-old psyche as I hear about Paul Morel's awkward passion around Miriam. Lawrence's memory of what it is like to be a teenage boy is impressive, and he expresses those mental sensations brilliantly.

The mother also strikes me as a very strong character. The book really seems to be her story, and Lawrence presents it as such, at least at times. After all, the sons are really extensions of her, fulfillments (or not) of the ambitions she once held but had to put aside due to her disappointing marriage. Slack is best as a reader of the audiobook when he is spitting out Mrs. Morel's contempt for her husband or expressing it with barely contained restraint for William's fiance. The passion in these instances suggests very forcefully that Lawrence must have admired or at least been fascinated by this character.