By Mark Twain (read by Nick Offerman)
Audible (audiobook)
Nick Offerman is probably best known for portraying the manly Ron Swanson in the excellent HBO comedy series Parks and Recreation. He is the ideal narrator for Mark Twain’s tale of a twitchy, energetic scamp (Tom Sawyer) intent on breaking all bonds (mainly those of his pious Aunt Polly) and tasting freedom whenever possible (swimming, Becky Thatcher, treasure seeking). Stronger undercurrents occasionally disturb the surface hijinks: slavery, racism, poverty, the distant civil war. Offerman’s full-flavoured voice fits my own image of Twain fondly mining his childhood for “the entertainment of boys and girls”. Fine and dandy.
