The Loblolly Boy

James Norcliffe (author)

Felix Gentle (reader)

Louis Braille Audio, 2010: 5CDs

ISBN: 9781742124230 10+

Genres: allegory, audio, fantasy

Issues: choices, family, identity

The Loblolly Boy is a mysterious green-clad youngster with glorious feathery wings sprouting from his shoulders. He's completely invisible and inaudible to others. So how is a miserable lad in an orphanage able to exchanges bodies with him and escape the confines of the Great House?

The newborn Loblolly Boy soon feels the greyness brought by total isolation from the real world. Only the Sensitives can see him - and the terrifying Collectors. Drawn to the mysterious and rather intimidating Captain, the Loblolly Boy sets about finding a way to recover his future - hopefully a better one than was available to his orphan self.

James Norcliffe is a NZ-based award-winning author. This somewhat surreal tale explores the ‘grass is greener on the other side of the fence' attitude held by so many. Norcliffe uses the Loblolly Boy's experiences to challenge this perception, as well as the impulsivity that causes so many to make poor choices when they are unhappy. While the themes are thought-provoking, The Loblolly Boy has a few interruptions to its internal logic and some rather contrived turns in the plot that may well irritate more observant readers/listeners. Worth listening to despite this, the Loblolly Boy, like Donne before him, concludes that ‘no man is an island' and that no matter how harsh our circumstances seem, complete isolation from our fellows is a far worse fate.

Felix Gentle is a competent reader but hasn't quite mastered the casual fluency that marks the greatest audio performers such as Stephen Fry. His articulation is a little too precise, his voice characterisations unremarkable and at times his emphasis within a sentence doesn't quite seem to capture the author's intention. The story is sufficiently interesting to make these minor flaws tolerable for one sitting but they would perhaps become harder to bear the second time around.