Jake and the Kid [Audio CD]

W.O. Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 21, 2008

W. O. Mitchell's stories of Ma, the Kid, her twelve-year-old son, Jake, the hired hand, and the citizens of Crocus, Saskatchewan, began to appear in the pages of Maclean's in 1942. In 1950, the stories began running on CBC Radio and continued until 1956. Three hundred and twenty episodes were produced in all. This audiobook features a selection of those original recordings, drawn from the archives of CBC Radio. Sit back and soak up a simpler, gentler world as the town of Crocus comes to life in these brilliantly performed radio plays featuring John Drainie as Jake and Billy Mae Richards as the Kid. This radio classic is as rich in disputes as it is in characters. Hear all about Crocus's barber Repeat Golightly (-I say, that's Repeat Golightly as in Repeat Golightly-); Jake's friend and nemesis Old Man Gatenby; the -prairie lawyer,- George Solway, who sues the Crocus Breeze editor for claiming he looks like Malleable Brown's goat; and the Kid's Ma - who will not abide Pete Botrell's cheating the Kid in a horse race. Interlaced with these gems are Jake's many tall tales, of great fascination to both the Kid and all who listen in on these episodes.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

When Ma, the Kid, her twelve year old son, and Jake, the hired man, first appeared on the pages of Maclean’s and shortly after on CBC Radio, the lively boy and his cranky hero found their way into the hearts of thousands of readers. In this new edition of Jake and the Kid, we encounter the glorious minutia of small town life on the Canadian prairie. Jake and the Kid are surrounded by an entire community of richly eccentric characters: old Sam Gatenby, a rival to Jake and just as cantankerous; Miss Henchbaw, the stern, proper Rabbit Hill schoolteacher; and Repeat Golightly, the town’s philosophizing barber. Touching and laugh-out-loud funny in equal measure, Mitchell delivers a vibrant setting, a compelling cast of characters, and everyday events that speak directly to what it means to be human. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

One of Canada's most beloved authors of the twentieth century, W.O Mitchell was born in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. Over the course of his lifetime, he wrote numerous novels, short stories, and plays, which are memorable to this day. His best-known novel, Who Has Seen the Wind, was published in 1947 and has sold close to a million copies in Canada. Jake and the Kid was first published as a collection in 1961 after airing on CBC Radio, and has been adapted for stage and screen. W. O Mitchell was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 1973 and a Member of the Privy Council in 1992. He died in 1998.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: BTC Audiobooks; 1 edition (November 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0864923376
• ISBN-13: 978-0864923370
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Stories About Prairie Life, August 30, 2007

By 

J. E. Robinson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jake and the Kid (Paperback)

This is the original collection of Jake and The Kid from 1961-62.

W.O. Mitchell is a highly regarded Canadian prairie author who wrote about life in Canada. We wrote with a great deal of passion, humor, and emotion. His stories are often simple, but very entertaining. They leave the reader laughing or crying or both. Few have his talents for writing. In his day when Canada had a population of fifteen to twenty million or so, he sold a bit less than one million books and if he had been an American writer he probably could have been an equal to John Steinbeck or similar.

This is a great collection of 13 short stories, under 200 pages long. They are narrated by Jake and alternately by "the kid." They are stories about their life on a Saskatchewan farm near Crocus, Saskatchewan, which we can assume is realistic but fictional. The kid's ma is alive, but the father is dead and Jake is a surrogate father of sorts, and of course he is the "hired hand" on the farm. He does most of the work and manages the planting and harvesting, etc. The stories are set in a time spanning the WWII era up to the early 1950s.

The stories touch a lot of current and universal issues and themes including the people who fought in WWII, school teachers, medical care, the courts, getting old, etc. most of these issues are still at the front of the social agenda. I liked all the stories; but, I especially liked the one where the kid got a new horse at the auction. Also, Mitchell is able to create a lot of charm and attraction in his descriptions of the life on the sometimes bleak prairies.

As a comment, Mitchell has a new 1989 collection also named after the famous 1950s CBC radio series and the earlier book titled "According to Jake and The Kid." The newer book is about 50% bigger than the original collection of short stories from 1962. This new collection has mostly all new stories, but not 100%, and a few of the stories are based on the original stories and have altered and improved plots.

This is a wonderful collection. It is highly entertaining and most will love the book. Suggested follow up reading are his other two famous books: Jake and the Kid (1989) and Who Has Seen The Wind (1947), both of course by Mitchell.