Grendel

GRENDEL is the poetic novel for which Gardner is best known. A retelling of the Anglo-Saxon epic BEOWULF from the monster's point of view, it is, as with all Gardner novels, an affirmation of life over death. Though anti-heroic Grendel has been seduced by the stark truth of existential nihilism and is rightly disgusted with mankind's "progress" towards civilization, Beowulf's message of life's cyclical ascendancy even in the face of its randomness carries the novel's power. Despite his trademark whiny, nasal voice, Wolfram Kandinsky is a good choice for the brooding, self-pitying Grendel as he informs the monster with a grudgingly deserved and comical humanity. P.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

In the Old English epic Beowulf the hero of the title slays Grendel, the half-human monster that nightly came to assault the citadel of the Danish king. When Grendel's even more formidable mother comes to avenge him, Beowulf chases her back to her lair and dispatches her, as well. In 1971 American novelist John Gardner achieved deserved celebrity for retelling these above events from Grendel's point of view. And now George Guidall masterfully impersonates the grumbling momma's boy with deliciously sly humor and mock-tragic grandeur. Without ever striking a false note, he maintains throughout such a perfect balance of crudity and poetry that we laugh, cringe and weep all at once. His is an anti-villain par excellence. Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine