Digital audiobook performed by Jena Malone, Ruby Dee and Victor Mack (Recording of a live performance of LA Theatreworks)

Twelve-year-old Frankie Adams is bored with life and longing for adventure, for a sense of belonging to something “bigger.” When her older brother comes home on leave from the Army, to marry his girlfriend Janice, she becomes obsessed with the wedding and what it may mean for her own future.

This is the stage adaptation of Carson McCullers classic coming-of-age novel.

Carson McCullers has a way of writing her characters that draws the reader into their very souls. Frankie’s journey through this phase of adolescence is at once painfully distressing, funny and charming. I was, in turns, afraid for Frankie and amused by her.

I listened to the audio which is wonderfully acted by Ruby Dee, Jena Malone and Victor Mack. These talented actors really bring the characters to life. Ruby Dee plays Berenice, the family maid, who tries her best to guide Frankie. Jena Malone is perfect as the adolescent Frankie, full of dreams and plans one minute, and wallowing in misery the next. ( )

This Play is very close to me. Frankie's agony of being so uncomfortable in her own skin, and her own mind. She's just can't see why she doesn't flow with the rest of the world, and it is absolutely unbearable. Frankie is right between the older, wiser Bernice, and the young, innocent (enough) John Henry. Though, both end up frustrating Frankie to violence. Frankie and Bernice have some of the most simple, yet eloquent expressions of emotion and conflict I've heard. ( )

CD - I didn't read this, I listened in the car. I enjoyed the mixed cast a lot. Story is good; everything can change before you realize it. ( )