METAMORPHOSIS

“Looking on oneself as something alien, forgetting the sight, remembering the gaze,” wrote Kafka, perhaps presaging his most famous tale, in which a workaday traveling salesman wakes one day to find he is now a huge dung beetle. Kafka expertly portrays the vagaries of the human heart--all of its sad glory and tinny selfishness--in a recording that the gifted Martin Jarvis elevates to an audio classic, employing his storytelling skills and knowing inflections in a lively and charming narration occasionally punctuated by scratchy, whimsical violins. Jarvis has firmly established himself as a source of finely nuanced theater of the mind. This unforgettable audio movie is vivid and disturbing, shot through with black humor. D.J.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 03]