Main Travelled Roads

By: Hamlin Garland

Narrated by: Walter Zimmerman, Donald Wight

Hamlin Garland is mostly remembered today for his innovative collections of short stories; Main Travelled Roads is his most famous collection. It contains six stories and is an undisputed American classic.

"Under the Lion's Paw" shows an honest, hardworking farmer victimized by a greedy landlord.

Another powerful story is the semiautobiographical "Up the Coulee", about a successful son who returns from the East to find his mother and brother trapped on a poor farm, defeated in spite of their best efforts.

"Mrs. Ripley's Trip" is a tender story of an elderly couple settled in their frugal country ways, with the wife determined to realize her dream of revisiting childhood scenes.

Rounding out the collection are "The Return of a Private", "The Branch Road", and "Among the Corn Rows". Garland did not write "pretty" stories, but he describes exhilarating moments in the lives of these farm people and often highlights the strength of extraordinary characters.

Public Domain (P)1986 Jimcin Recordings

Touching stories. Terrible audio quality.

Hamlin Garland does a wonderful job of capturing the feelings and personalities of his characters. Each of the six stories is moving. I hated for them to end.

The sound quality is like listening to an old cassette on very tinny speakers. Or a radio program on an AM station (with bad speakers). Plus, when one story ends there isn't any pause before the next one begins. It was like "What? That was the end?" And I would rewind just to hear the very end of the story again.

The narrators actually do a great job of portraying the characters. I would have given them a 5, but for the sound quality.

When I first started listening to it, I had to stop because it was so hard to listen to. Later I came back to it, because it's a book I've always wanted to read. I'm glad I did.

Not Tecommended

If you like the details of male homosexual behavior, you may love this stuff. It offended my heterosexual sensibilities.