The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain
Narrator: Nick Offerman
Pages: 8
Published by Audible Studios
Publication Date September 20th 2016
Goodreads

With The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, not even Twain could have known that when he introduced readers to the inhabitants of the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, he would also be introducing two characters - one a clever and mischievous scamp, and the other a carefree, innocent ragamuffin - whose stories would ultimately shape the course of American literature. But whereas its sequel and companion piece, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, would harken an end to childhood, the story of Tom Sawyer is one that depicts the excitement and adventure of boyhood along the Mississippi.

Revisit this enduring classic and you will be struck not only by Twain's skill at capturing a time and place so vividly but also by his uncanny ability to crystallize those oftentimes tumultuous and conflicting emotions that a child experiences at the precipice of adulthood: a longing to be free from the rules and obligations of adults while enjoying the laxity inherent in childhood; a love of all things macabre, like blood oaths, cemetery cures, and haunted houses, that reveal a true innocence - an unawareness of real-life consequences and one's own mortality; and the pangs of guilt when knowing the right thing to do and doing the right thing appear to be at odds.

When I was eleven, and a new resident of Missouri my family made a weekend trip to Hannibal, the boyhood home of Samuel Clemens AKA Mark Twain. You would think as a reader, I would have loved this, and at first I was excited. However, that excitement ended soon after we arrived. We toured the Becky Thatcher Cave, Mark Twain’s house and viewed the fence that inspired one of the best known scenes in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer before lunchtime. After refusing to ride the Choo-Choo “Twain” we were ready to call it a day. It put a sour taste in my mouth for Mark Twain.

Earlier this year I listened to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer read by Nick Offerman. Maybe it was due to my childhood experience or the fact that I’m not a nine-year-old boy but I thought it was a snooze-fest. I found Tom to be an annoying little brat and wouldn’t have been the least bit sorry if he had actually died in that cave.

Nick Offerman was the book’s saving grace. His telling of Tom’s adventures kept my ears occupied and the story moving along.

However, it was not enough to save the book for me and at the novel’s close I was just as enthusiastic as I was to ride the Choo-Choo Twain.