Rebecca on audio

I have loved discovering books on tape. Thanks Harry Potter and Jim Dale! After listening to all seven of these, I turned to Rebecca which I borrowed from S when we drove from New Jersey to Minnesota. I loved the narrator of the book--she had such a nice English accent. She didn't do as well as Jim Dale changing her voice for the different characters, but it was still great. I like a review on Amazon: "Read in wonderfully British cadences by Anna Massey, all the mysterious and oppressive nuances are made immediate and chilling. We even feel some sympathy for the absurdly timid and cowering heroine; it is, after all, easy to imagine feeling woefully inferior to the predecessor and desperately eager to please."

It has been a long time since I read Rebecca. I kept wondering if the book's narrator would ever be named, but she never was, in comparison with the larger than life Rebecca. I love the way DuMarier portrays her wild imagination--the vivid scenarios that she imagines will happen in this or that situation. An especially memorable scene is when the narrator is imagining that she is Rebecca at dinner and Max catches her at it, wondering at the glint in her eye and her strange gestures. he can almost reconstruct what is going on in her mind.

Other than that, I get so infuriated with her weakness, fraility, and timidity. Why doesn't she stand up to Mrs Danvers? Why doesn't she take a bit of control of Manderly? Why doesn't she assert that she is the new lady of the house? Why doesn't she have a frank conversation with Max about her fears and that Mrs Danvers was the one that put her up to the costume for the fancy ball? She is portrayed in typical female tones--dependent on her husband, won't drive the car, is relegated to household organization and flower arranging. I wonder what time period DuMarier was trying to portray. There were no outside references that I could place it.

But, DuMarier has created a wonderful story. The way it unravels bit by bit. The way she starts with the narrator's dream return to Manderly, and then takes us back. It was wonderful to listen to it and remember the story and it has made me anxious to listen to other audio books. Such a great way to do the dishes. Thank you mom for sending me that old school cassette walkman that I can just put in my pocket and listen as I go about the dreary household chores and also when I'm in the car and the kids are asking to listen to their cd's yet again.