?Muriels Message? makes you want to run back to your youth and jump into the arms of anyone who cared for you lovingly. This piece made me tear up, just a little, wondering if either of my children?s children will find their grandmother?s voice beyond the grave. A curious combination of nostalgia, innocence and reflection; it?s tone is gentle, like the two characters portrayed. The music early in the piece is welcoming. The narrator?s writing is scenic and her own message is descriptive yet clear and to the point. It can emotionally stir the empathetic listener.
What a beautifully drawn portrait of the person that Muriel was to this documenter, of the person that our own Muriels are to us. The young speaker's voice is soft and reflective, painting her grandmother as a "storyteller," a trait that has ironically been passed along to our narrator and yet seems unlikely by the informal labels on her audiocassettes, which have emerged from a long forgotten box. The voices in the background, both old and small, along with the elastic sounds of the piano, create a dreamy sequence that not only flood Muriel's granddaughter with emotions, but the listeners -- of this eerily familiar voice looping over and over on magnetic tape. Telling the listeners that she will call them back, though it is too late for that anymore. The speaker tells us this is "not quite the revelation I'd imagined," and yet it is somehow soothing for her to listen to over and over. I think this is a wonderful story that is simply and tidily told in just a few short minutes, and the stories and knock-knock jokes paired with the sweet squeaks of innocence, we envisioning a child wrapped up in her grandmother's furrowed and weathered arms, are undoubtedly familiar, a story of loss and remembrance we all know too well.
Comments for Muriel's Message
Produced by mira burt-wintonick
Other pieces by mira burt-wintonick
Rating Summary
2 comments
Carolina Wheat
Posted on June 28, 2007 at 08:48 AM | Permalink
Review of Muriel's Message
?Muriels Message? makes you want to run back to your youth and jump into the arms of anyone who cared for you lovingly. This piece made me tear up, just a little, wondering if either of my children?s children will find their grandmother?s voice beyond the grave. A curious combination of nostalgia, innocence and reflection; it?s tone is gentle, like the two characters portrayed. The music early in the piece is welcoming. The narrator?s writing is scenic and her own message is descriptive yet clear and to the point. It can emotionally stir the empathetic listener.
Ra Ra
Posted on December 11, 2006 at 05:26 PM | Permalink
Review of Muriel's Message
What a beautifully drawn portrait of the person that Muriel was to this documenter, of the person that our own Muriels are to us. The young speaker's voice is soft and reflective, painting her grandmother as a "storyteller," a trait that has ironically been passed along to our narrator and yet seems unlikely by the informal labels on her audiocassettes, which have emerged from a long forgotten box. The voices in the background, both old and small, along with the elastic sounds of the piano, create a dreamy sequence that not only flood Muriel's granddaughter with emotions, but the listeners -- of this eerily familiar voice looping over and over on magnetic tape. Telling the listeners that she will call them back, though it is too late for that anymore. The speaker tells us this is "not quite the revelation I'd imagined," and yet it is somehow soothing for her to listen to over and over. I think this is a wonderful story that is simply and tidily told in just a few short minutes, and the stories and knock-knock jokes paired with the sweet squeaks of innocence, we envisioning a child wrapped up in her grandmother's furrowed and weathered arms, are undoubtedly familiar, a story of loss and remembrance we all know too well.