Recapitulation

By: Wallace Stegner

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

In this moving sequel to Big Rock Candy Mountain, Bruce Mason returns to Salt Lake City, not for his aunt's funeral but to encounter after 45 years the place he fled in bitterness. A successful statesman and diplomat, Mason had buried his awkward and lonely childhood and sealed himself off from the thrills and torments of adolescence to become a figure who commanded international respect.

But the realities of the present recede in the face of the ghosts of his past. As he makes the perfunctory arrangements for the funeral, we enter with him on an intensely personal and painful inner pilgrimage, meeting the father who darkened his childhood, the mother whose support was both redeeming and embarrassing, the friend who drew him into the respectable world of which he so craved to be a part, and the woman he nearly married.

In this profoundly moving book, Stegner has drawn an intimate portrait of a man understanding how his life has been shaped by experiences seemingly remote and inconsequential.

Public Domain (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Excellent writer

Stegner had an unusual ability to use language to describe and explain. His sentences are rich and engaging. His story of the coming of age of a man in a complex and largely dysfunctional family is compelling.

AMAZING NARRATION!

Wallace Stegner’s writing style is to be sought after, no matter the story it makes one think. There is a deep history in his work. The narration is a huge part of keeping this audible in its correct time frame. Good listen.

Nothing beats Stegner

Real dialogue flows from real characters. pensive and foreboding Bruce Mason visits his past. A reader does an excellent job with all of the characters.

Same book again

This book is well written and had I not read Big Rock Candy Mountain, I would like it better. Too much of it is repetitive..

Well written

I read Marcel Proust and I say this book stands up to “A la Recherche du temps Perdu.” Stagner’s writing ability is impressive.