Parnassus on Wheels

By: Christopher Morley / Narrated By: Nadia May

Length: 3 hrs and 29 mins

Oh how I loved this little book! Oh what a charmer!

First we have narrator Nadia May flinging herself in and introducing us to the feisty flour-swilling Helen McGill, our 39-year old spinster heroine extraordinaire. She’s been living the country life, saved from a life as a bored and miserable governess by her brother Andrew, and the two have been living amicably ever since, he as a gentleman farmer, she as the woman who’s been baking his bread and serving his meals, and caring for the chickens. She’s never thought to question this life, it’s always been ho-hum and all-is-well.

But the writing bug has bitten Andrew, and he’s become something of a literary star with his musings on country life. Soon, he’s off and away on jaunts, never mind the plowing to be done, the meals he’s been missing. And when little redheaded 40-year old Roger Mifflin comes rolling to their farm, wondering if the literary man would like to buy his rolling book wagon, complete with fat horse Pegasus, and good dog Bock, Helen has herself a good old shock: Of COURSE Andrew would love nothing to do better than to buy the danged thing and take himself off from the farm for even more jaunts, leaving her stuck behind.

So Helen ups and buys it all herself, using most of her egg-money which she’d been saving all these years to buy a Ford. The whole escapade takes place early in the 20th century, so one is left to imagine what a scrappy little Ford would mean to the farm-bound Helen. But she’s peeved with literary agents, she’s peeved with fawning editors, she’s peeved with autograph seekers, and mostly? She’s pretty goshdanged peeved with Andrew. It’s time for her to have an adventure of her own, so off she sets with Mifflin, he staying close for a few days to show her the ropes until he’s to take off for Brooklyn to, uhm, write his own danged book.

Parnassus on Wheels is quite possibly the most charming audiobook I’ve listened to in ohhhh for such a long time, which is saying a lot cuz I’ve liked a lot that I’ve listened to as of late. But Nadia May’s narration brings the colorful Helen, the fist-swinging Mifflin, the fiery Andrew into such life that it’s hard NOT to get totally swept up in this tale of learning what matters in life. Author Christopher Morley brings country life and countryfolk to us, he muses on nature, he delights us with his little twists and turns. Just truly a delight. And there are soooo many chortles out loud—from a bloodied Andrew autographing a copy of his book for Mifflin, to Helen ALWAYS dubbing Mifflin a Gingersnap, or that Funny Little Man, even as she’s wooed and charmed and delighted by all their adventures and mishaps.

I couldn’t believe it when I saw reviews saying they’d only come to Parnassus AFTER they’d read its sequel, The Haunted Bookshop first. I mean, whazzaaaa?!? After I listened to this and loved it, I dashed over and got that audiobook right away and it was a TOTAL Noooooo! That one is all treatises rather than gentle musings, unfortunate character studies, a plodding mystery, and moNOTonous narration (NOT Nadia May!). If I’d listened to that one first, I would’ve totally missed this dear DEAR little charmer of a story.

Heavy on hurvy-scurvy dealings, light on romance, this finely crafted gem was a real treat.

And Wanda McCaddon? Or Nadia May as you sometimes call yourself?

You rock! How wonderful and lively you made the most memorable of heroines, what a spry little Hero you’ve given us here! Huzzah!