John Z. Guzlowski

My original Echoes of Tattered Tongues audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

John Z Guzlowski provides a strong and visual audio script with Echoes of Tattered Tongues. As someone who studied poetry in depth as an undergraduate, I really never expected to hear an audiobook that could pull off poetry in the way this one has. My initial thought, before I even started listening to the book, would be that it would be sad, it would make me sad, and I would want to turn it off. However, there’s a warmth to the words and the poetry in some ways closure, in other ways a visual tour of an era we’ve mostly forgotten. The Publisher’s Weekly review did not do the story justice, rather, it made it seem as though the book lacked humanity, that it was mean to shock by picking those particularly vivid and painful poems.

However, I found that story about the trunk especially moving, and one that I think does a better job as a conduit for the rest of the book. There was a steamer trunk that his father built with his own hands then loaded with those things they would need in the new world. Along with the contents, it began to carry memories of the father who built it and the mother who knitted some of the clothes that went in it. The trunk went to Chicago and served as a table, bench and even a bed. The trunk went from Chicago to Arizona and again it was one of those lasting memories that continued on with them. For $150, the author could have kept the trunk and the memories that came with it, instead it went on with the estate sale and an irreplaceable part of the family’s history was lost. The story doesn’t end there as he muses about the reasons for turning down the opportunity to keep something that had lasted so long. His not taking on the trunk felt callous and as good poetry and prose does, evoked an emotion, he was honest about it, talking about the doubt later and that I felt was the best summary of the book.

So many books abruptly tell a story, then make a point. This book told a story, then invited the reader to come into the story and go along the decision making process with him. The descriptions of the events were vivid, the story honestly told, and the reflection clearly and sometimes coldly or warmly related. Nonetheless, it is one of the rare instances where I feel the poetry was the right medium. Few people properly use flashes in history to tell a story, most of the times the reader will become lost. In this story, the reader finds his own humanity and his own unanswered questions a parallel to John Z. Guzlowski’s recounting.

About the narrator

John Bandi provides a thoughtful, reflective baritone that accompanies well the gray cloud cover on the cover image. He clearly delineates those areas that deserve remembrance and those that moments that uplift. Ultimately, his introspective tone, thoughtful and fluid, provide the right accompaniment to an audio delivery of visually startling events.

Audiobook was provided for review by the publisher.… (más)