I once described Lovecraft’s work to a friend as “The kind of stories that can give you a chill while reading them in the park on a warm summer day”. I honestly didn’t get quite that feeling listening to the story spoken aloud. Perhaps it is my familiarity with the work, or perhaps the formal language that needs to be read for full effect, but while I enjoyed listening I just didn’t get the kind of “good creepies” that I expect from Lovecraft!
Mr. Alexander does a more than creditable job and his reading is enthusiastic and flavorful. Now I have always pronounced Cthulhu as “Kuh- THOOL-oo” but the narrator pronounces it as “KOO-to-loo”, and while the correctness of either is debatable, I actually found the, to me, strangeness of Mr. Alexander’s pronunciation actually a plus as it somehow added to the sense of un-reality that permeates the story.
If you have never read the Call of Cthulhu, you will certainly enjoy this recording. Turn out the lights and imagine yourself sitting with the narrator as he recounts his tale, a man who has had the foundations of his reality shaken to their core. If you are already a fan, these recordings do deliver on their promise of evoking the poetry in Lovecraft’s prose.
