Today I’m writing about a recording of the short story, Aaron Kelly’s Bones, read by George S. Irving. You can give it a listen yourself if you click here.
I haven’t been one for audiobooks in many, many years. The closest I get is listening to literary analysis of pieces of I’ve already read in the background while I’m doing something else. Now, I know that the video I’ve posted may not appear to constitute an “original audiobook”; it’s a reading of a single story from a large anthology of short scary stories called Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (apparently, it’s well known, but most people I ask are only semi-familiar with it at best. I chose the video I did specifically because it has the entire story in its description, in case you want to read along.) However, I’d argue that isolating it from the rest of the anthology gives it a different, unique context – I find myself going back to this video far more often than I do any other content relating to the anthology, and I feel like listening to just this story is an incredibly different experience from listening to the entire anthology.
The performance of the narrator of this reading, George S. Irving, is a massive part of the reason that I’m writing about this recording specifically. The slightly accented voice Irving uses while narrating this story is not the norm for him: however, it gives the recording a very distinct identity entirely on its own. In an audiobook, the narrator becomes a much more present character than in a text you’re reading silently, and this is a key aspect of storytelling that many people tend to overlook, especially because one doesn’t always think about the narrator when reading a text unless the text is either in the first person, or features a particularly striking or unusual form of narration, such in parts of William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury.
On the subject of voice, Irving’s performance is what not only makes this reading appealing to me in the first place, but in my mind, it makes it something more than a reading or audiobook; Irving is energetic, enthusiastic, and lively as he recites. With only mild adjustments to his voice, he’s able to give each character’s dialogue its own distinct touch. As you listen, you can tell each of the characters apart without any difficulty at all, and Irving’s portrayal of each of them feels consistent with their characterization within the story. Aaron Kelly’s Bones is a horror story, and a rather morbid one, considering the fact that its plot consists of a deceased man returning from beyond the grave. However, it also has humorous themes to it – Aaron Kelly, the revenant or zombie or whatever you want to call him, returns from the dead largely to be a minor nuisance to his widow. Thus, Irving’s choice of voices and tone are a perfect fit for this sort of story.
This is a reading I can listen to over and over again without getting tired of it. Admittedly, this is the case with the other stories from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark that Irving has narrated, but I chose this one because I feel like it’s a prime example of how with the right narration and technique, the way one tells a story can be radically altered and improved. Probably my favorite section of the reading is at 2:06, where a goofy MIDI track starts up to represent the fiddler beginning to play. It always catches my attention, as it’s easily the most noticeable sound effect added to the recording, and if I’m being honest, I find it rather catchy, despite how silly it is.
