Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough
(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.com

Fall of Frost
By Brian Hall
Narrated by Dick Hill 

If you are not presently an Audio book fan, this is a book that might expand your literary horizon. Without any intent to diminish Brian Hall’s skill as a novelist, “Fall of Frost” is a better book to listen to than read.

“Fall of Frost” is a fictional portrayal of “four time” Pulitzer Prize winning American poet, Robert Frost. Dick Hill’s narration smoothly transitions from prose to poetry in his beautiful presentation of Brian Hall’s fascinating rendition of Robert Frost’s life.

This is not a biography. It is a work of fiction grounded in historic events of a poet’s life. It is an author’s projection of what Robert Frost thought when he wrote a poem; when he met world movers and shakers, or when he gave speeches at famous gatherings.

Hall escapes tedious reporting by capturing moments of Frost’s life. When Frost meets with Stalin in 1962, he is nearing the end of his life. The story makes a listener feel Frost’s age by describing a long flight and revealing ruse’s of old age; i.e. like saying “what did you say” when what you really mean is “I need more time to think of a response”.

From "The New Yorker" - Picture of Frost @ Innaugeration

Hall speculates on what might be going through Frost’s mind. When Frost offered a poetry reading at Kennedy’s inauguration, he missed a line of his own poem; Hall writes like he knows Frost’s thoughts showing Frost’s frustration over his mistake.

“Fall of Frost” entertains and informs by revealing events in Frost’s life that influenced his poetry. By shedding the category of non-fiction, Hall manages to create believable circumstances of a life that created famous poems like “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”.

No, this is not a biography but it gives a context to events in Robert Frost’s life that can be found in history books.

The prose of Hall and poetry of Frost are wonderful to hear, regardless of the precise accuracy of context in Frost’s life.

After listening to Fall of Frost, an audiophile or bibliophile will have a better appreciation of who Robert Frost was and what he represented in America and the world.