Nick Offerman is one of the most talented actors working today.
Adept at deadpan comic delivery – a talent enhanced all the more when he’s acting opposite his immensely-funny life partner-in-crime Megan Mullally (they played ex-husband and wife Ron and Tammy in Parks and Recreation) – and deft written raconteur whose books Paddle Your Own Canoe, Gumption and Good Clean Fun are a delight to read, he is seemingly able to lend himself to a whole host of things and excel at every one of them.
So it makes perfect sense that Audible.com tapped to read a new audio version of Mark Twain’s immortal classic The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), a book that along with its companion piece Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), would, as Hypable rightly observes, “ultimately shape the course of American literature.”
Given the iconic nature of these beloved novels and particularly the character of Tom Sawyer, you can well understand why Offerman is thrilled to be reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer out loud for the world to hear.
“Being paid to perform such a gratifying activity as reading Mark Twain aloud felt powerfully akin to Tom Sawyer hoodwinking other boys into paying him for the privilege of whitewashing a fence. Let’s keep that between us.” (Parade)
He more than does it justice, if this clip is anything at all to go by, with Hypable keenly noting that he “brings his distinctive baritone and a fine-tuned comic versatility to Twain’s writing. In a knockout performance, he doesn’t so much as read Twain’s words as he does rejoice in them, delighting in the hijinks of Tom — whom he lovingly refers to as a ‘great scam artist’ and ‘true American hero’ — while deftly delivering the tenderness and care Twain gave to his own characters.”
He is the perfect choice to take you back to St. Petersburg, Missouri, a million all-too-pleasant and life-shaping worlds away from your daily commute which if it’s anything like mine is nowhere near as carefree or fun as you’d like it to be.
You can get Offerman’s fine rendition of an American classic at Audible.com