The Sand Castle [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Rita Mae Brown (Author), Marguerite Gavin (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2008

It's August 1952, and seven-year-old Nickel sets off for a day at the seashore with her mother, aunt, and cousin Leroy. Everyone is excited when they reach Chesapeake Bay-everyone except for Leroy, who is recently motherless and frightened of the world around him. Nickel delights in tormenting her cousin, but, as the group lounges on the beach and begins work on a magnificent sand castle, the sisters try to coax him out of his shell by telling stories about their own childhood trips to the shore. However, Nickel's taunting of Leroy escalates, and the family history between her mother and aunt rises to the surface-and then a crab bites Leroy, and they must all come together. Only years later can Nickel see that day for what it truly was-a life-changing lesson about family and the pleasure and heartbreak that comes with it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Aside from the overpackaging (the inch-thick plastic clamshell case holds just two CDs), everything about this lean presentation fits nicely together. Marguerite Gavin's crisp, clean delivery moves the story along at a clipped pace; her voice is as clear and bright as the sunny day on Chesapeake Bay it describes. Creating a distinct aural character for each of the five family members in this story through accent and delivery seems effortless for Gavin. Particularly well done is her treatment of the seven-year-old Nickel, the main character of the story, and the older, reminiscing Nickel who narrates the tale. To the listener, she is obviously the same character, though her age and role in the presentation varies. A Grove hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 3). (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

About the Author

Rita Mae Brown is the bestselling author of numerous books, including Rubyfruit Jungle, The Hounds and the Fury, Six of One, Hounded to Death, In Her Day, Six of One, and Alma Mater. She also writes the popular Sister Jane mysteries and the Sneaky Pie Brown mystery series. An Emmy-nominated screenwriter and a poet, she lives in Afton, Virginia, where she is master of foxhounds of Oak Ridge Hunt Club. Marguerite Gavin has recorded over three hundred audiobooks in nearly every genre. A nominee for the prestigious Audie Award, she was won both AudioFile Earphones and Publishers Weekly Listen-Up awards. AudioFile magazine says "Marguerite Gavin is an accomplished storyteller . . . with a sonorous voice, rich and full of emotion, she easily delivers wry humor and moves smoothly from accent to accent, recalling multiple characters perfectly." Marguerite divides her time as an actress between the sound studio and classical theater. She lives with her family in the Washington, D.C., area.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged,Library - Unabridged CD edition (August 11, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400138213
• ISBN-13: 978-1400138210
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 6.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,675,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rita Mae Brown is the bestselling author of the Sister Jane novels-Outfoxed, Hotspur, Full Cry, The Hunt Ball, The Hounds and the Fury, The Tell-Tale Horse, and Hounded to Death-as well as the Sneaky Pie Brown mysteries and Rubyfruit Jungle, In Her Day, Six of One, and The Sand Castle, among many others. An Emmy-nominated screenwriter and a poet, Brown lives in Afton, Virginia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Like a bandaid... quick and painless, August 8, 2008

By 

MManning "Office Assistant" (Skaneateles, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sand Castle (Hardcover)

As one of my fellow viewers, I picked up this up at my local library due to the attractive, fun cover. "2 chicks from the 50's wearing beach caps and bright red lipstick? It'll be like an old MGM movie in my hands!"

It wasn't. And while it wasn't, it wasn't disappointing either. Being my first Rita Mae Brown short story (103 pages; reminds me of aiming to put $20 in my tank and spilling over to $20.03), I'm not surprised that these are repeat characters. If you're new to this book, the author has been able to flesh them out a little and make them extremely individualistic. They each have their own specific quirks (to the point of personality stererotypes) but the dialogue used to display them is witty, quick and relateable. Whereas I don't believe that people actually have these Mother/Daughter, Grandmother/Grandson, Sister/Sister, Cousin/Cousin relationships, I can see bits and pieces of my own childhood impressions of my peers and superiors in them.

The plot is pretty basic. Two attractive sisters in their mid- to late-forties and completing annual trip to the beach both towing children: one sister with her grandson (her daughter/his mother having passed away from illness 8 months or so before) and one with her only child (a tomboy daughter). Fresh from tasting death and heartcahe due to two World Wars, the sisters have taken two very different courses of life. The older sister chastises and preaches her new-found love of Jesus Christ while the younger sister approaches life more logically with a rational mind. Told from the voice of the tomboy-daughter, the dialogue that progresses from all four characters is carefully chosen and well worded... even if it is hard to believe.

With insightful scenes such as preparing, building and protecting a sandcastle (created with care that people use to decorate their Christmas trees each year), a wonderful story of a grumpy aunt and her woolen swimsuit, and the poor young boy's unfortunate accident with an over-zealous crab, it's familiar and heartwarming to remember rituals, excursions, and "remember when" moments from one's own childhood.

The Sand Castle won't change your life but it is a quick and thoughtful read in a few days (which allows you plenty of time to return to the library as it's a two-week rental!).

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars First disappointing Brown book ever, September 25, 2008

By 

S. Stinson "book lover" (Oklahoma USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Sand Castle (Hardcover)

I'm a huge fan of Rita Mae Brown, owning every single book she has ever written, and an even bigger fan of Juts and Wheezy, first introduced in Six of One (her best, in my opinion). Upon seeing The Sand Castle release, I was thrilled to, yet again, visit the Hunsenmeier sisters and their vibrant, entertaining dialogue.

Needless to say, it wasn't a pleasant visit. While Brown still has the witty repartee she is so well known for, the storyline is thin, and the book is too - literally! Only 100 pages of what transpires in a day on the Chesapeake shore with Juts, Wheezy, Nickel, and her cousin, Leroy. Boring banter between the sisters, typical kid arguing, and a minor catastrophe really don't do anything to improve the storyline or endear one to the characters.

As a lover of Six of One and the subsequent sequels, it was also a bit disturbing to read certain affectations given to favorite old characters whom, to my knowledge, were never referred to as such in any previous books; i.e. Cora as "Big Wheezy?" Maybe I was sleeping.

In short, this review is probably longer and more substantial than The Sand Castle. One can only hope that the next releases from Brown have a bit more substance.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Definitely not up to her usual standard., November 27, 2008

By 

Tina Mancuso - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sand Castle (Hardcover)

The best thing I can say about "The Sand Castle" is that it's a quick read. Other reviewers have recapped the story (what there is of it), so I won't go into that; I'll just say this: if you were a fan of "Six of One" and "Bingo", you should definitely skip this one. Other than the fact that the characters have the same names and more or less the same personalities, there's really no continuity at all between this prequel and the earlier "Runnymede" novels. (Same thing could be said about "Loose Lips", which suffered from similar continuity problems.) I tried my best while reading this to think of it as a completely separate story with characters that happened to have the same names, but it was difficult given that it just wasn't all that engaging on its own.

If you must read this one, get it from the library, like I did.