Ten North Frederick (1956) - John O’Hara

Written by John O’Hara
Read by Scott Aiello
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Release date: July 3, 2014
Duration: 17:48:01

Introduction - Jonathan Dee

This is the story of a family of the ‘best’ people, living in Gibbsville, Pa. Three generations of the Chapin family are portrayed with intimacy and uncompromising clarity. Many other people at all levels of the social ladder are portrayed as well, and what they do and say to one another is often shocking.

Joe Chapin led a storybook life. A successful small-town lawyer with a beautiful wife, two over-achieving children, and aspirations to be president, he seemed to have it all. But as his daughter looks back on his life, a different man emerges: one in conflict with his ambitious and shrewish wife, terrified that the misdeeds of his children will dash his political dreams, and in love with a model half his age. With black wit and penetrating insight, O’Hara follows this “average guy.”

Scott Aiello narrates this neglected classic with an almost naive enthusiasm that adds bite to O’Hara’s complex portrait of a man who was in many ways a typical American, a man whom nobody really knew. Aiello’s clear and certain portrayals of all the important people in Joseph B. Chapin’s life–his parents, wife, children, law partner, and friends–play against the book’s emphasis on the extent to which we are all strangers to one another, and sometimes to ourselves. But the audiobook is also a portrait of the changes in America and American life from the age of Wilson to that of Franklin Roosevelt, reminding us of the deep roots of what we think of as modern life. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2014,

Three reviews…I came to this novel having seen the 1957 film version and being intrigued with the film and wondering how faithful it was to the novel. I was surprised to find that the core of the film was not the main body of the novel, but only covered the final thirty pages or so. Yet this was no disappointment.

An absorbing, compulsively readable novel which, at slightly over 400 pages, moves more or less like lightning. It won the National Book Award in 1956 - and remains relevant in the way it explores the human (and the American) condition.

The book has very little plot, but the characters are so deeply developed that you feel as if you know them–from their likes and dislikes, personality quirks and even sexual proclivities. You’ll want to keep reading not to find out what happens, but to find out what the characters do next. Joe has ambitions to be president of the United States, his hoity-toity wife Edith ….., daughter Ann is hustled off to boarding school after ….., and son Joby is a rebellious mess–at least in the eyes of his parents. Oh yes, and perfect gentleman and upstanding citizen Joe …..heartwarming and shocking. As I said, delicious! It’s a great, fun read.

The book has two parts but no chapters, it is as if the narrator just sat down and starts filling you in on the family. Part I is 94% of the book, Part II 6%, maybe the “core of the film” eluded to.

You will need to read the book to fill in the “…..”