Saturday 7 June 2008

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

The Official Blurb

Come and hear the strange tail of The Boss Hank Morgan, a modern day (at the time of publication) Connecticut Yankee who inexplicably finds himself transported to the court of the legendary King Arthur (as the title of the book implies). Hank, or simply, The Boss, as he comes to be most frequently known, quickly uses his modern day knowledge and education to pass himself off as a great magician, to get himself out of all sorts of surprising, (and frequently amusing) situations, as well as to advance the technological and cultural status of the nation in which he finds himself.

My Review

I like many others I'm familiar with the story through the Bing Crosby film of the same name. It was the happy memories of that film and the "Busy doing nothing" song that drew me towards this title.

What we have is a rather too long for its content story. The reading runs for 13+ hours and the animated and spirited reading just couldn't save the story for me. The reader gives his all and is very good, yet as stated the rather pointless rambling of the author who makes verbose points through the prose , only to contradict it later rapidly loses sympathy for the main character "the boss".

When the story is moving it is interesting and amusing. It doesnt cause belly laughs but rather causes a small grin to slide over your face.

Overall I found it a bit of a drag as I was constantly fearing another long expostalation of opinions and expressions that the character didn't believe in. There was a little noise on the recording but nothing that would upset the avid listener.

The film was better.

Reading 3/3
Production 1/3
Story 1/3

Total Score 5/9

Available from Librivox