("Horse Heaven", "Correlli's Mandolin")

Both were abridged audiobooks. One gotten by mistake, one less so.

I'm getting a handle on Jane Smiley's novelistic approach. Uncut, the cast might even be bigger than that of "Moo". The horses (especially that retired racehorse, Mr T.) are the most lovable characters in this book. The crooked trainer, Buddy, who was exhausted from being saved by Jesus, was the most interesting. There was also a sophisticated, bored second wife of a wealthy owner, who thought the sexist thing her husband ever said to her was "Honey, I really don't have any taste."

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I don't remember what made me leave off this book anymore, given that I remembered it as one of the most hilarious novels ever. (That peeing priest! That strongman with a canon!) A premonition that Louis de Bernières won't indulge us with such idylls for too long? If so, the abridgement certainly confirmed it. One nice episode amidst all the ugliness of war: the good doctor had to take out strings from Correlli's mandolin to use during Correlli's surgery -- surgical strings Correlli appropriated from him for his mandolin in the first place.

Stephen Lang's narration was excellent.