David Dornstein talks!
I've got some tape recordings of my brother David's voice. I haven't listened to them in a long time because I've got two kids now and don't have a lot of time to put on headphones and listen to old recordings of my dead brother's voice. Also: I no longer own a tape player.
"Sunday Brunch" (3:55 mins)
"The Stuffy Poet Introduces His Poem" (3:47 mins)
Recently I dropped the tapes off at a sound studio to have them transferred to a digital format. I've got recordings of David practicing a Scottish accent for a play he was acting in at college, and phoning into a radio talk show to argue with the host about US policy in Latin America and a disaster at a Hyatt Regency Hotel in the midwest (he phoned on several occasions on lazy days before going off to college, and tape recorded the calls himself while sitting in the kitchen of our house in suburban Philadelphia). I lost a tape of David driving to the Catskills in 1982 (it got stolen from my car), but a few years ago, I gained several tapes of David driving from New York to Providence in 1987. They were given to me by a friend of his who was a writer for Rolling Stone at the time and planned to use David as a character to follow in a story about Brown U., their alma mater.
Maybe I'll post some of these recordings if it turns out anyone cares to hear them. For now, I've found a few minutes from a tape that David sent me back in 1984. I had sent him tape recordings of our Passover seder that year (he couldn't make it home), and he sent me back this tape of a sunday brunch at college. If you read the book, the scene is described on pp. 148-149. I can't underestimate how many times I listened to this as a fifteen-year-old.
The other clip I'm posting I heard for the first time just a few days ago. It was made in February, 1985, when David was a senior at Brown. He seemed to have gotten hold of a better microphone and tape recorder, and was sitting in his room improvising in funny voices. In this clip, he's a stuffy English poet (one guesses) rambling through a longwinded introduction to a poem that he never actually reads.
posted by Ken Dornstein on March 23, 2006 10:40 AM
Comments
As the middle sister referred to in the video, and as someone who obviously knew David, it was strange to hear the tape. I must say, i do not recognize the voice. Whether that is a function of the passage of time and just forgetting, or whether he was "acting" with a professional voice. Sad for me because I would love to hear the sound of his voice the way I think I remember it. But to be honest, I am not sure what his real voice sounds like anymore. Time does help with the daily sadness you experience with the loss of someone, but unfortunately it erases alot of the clear memories of the experiences you had. What I wouldn't do to hear his real voice, even if it was annoying banter. And what I wouldn't do to have him hear the sound of mine and to hear the beautiful words of his niece.
Posted by: susan dornstein | April 3, 2006 05:02 AM
I found this book a very emotional read, especially Ken's last letter to David. The book I feel was also a celebration of David's short life. I was enjoying life as a married woman and raising my daughter Nicla born the year of the Lockerbie disaster. David was obviously an amazing young man.
Posted by: Carolina | April 29, 2006 06:35 PM
After having read the book, it was great fun to hear Sunday Brunch. The book was touching and emotional, but to hear David actually describe Ken as "just like me" was so very poignant.
Posted by: Patricia | May 8, 2006 10:34 AM
I remember a friend Adam Yaller told me that David had died in plane crash. I felt a deep emptiness. I remember playing tennis with David in a veiled attempt to join my high schol tennis team. After I lost, I thought David was arrogant and obnoxious. It was my fragile ego. In the end, David encouraged me to keep trying out for the team. No one else encouraged me except him. We used to pass each other in the hallway in between classes when masses of people ignore each other. David would look at me and yell about how good a tennis player I was to his upperclassmen friends. Dave was kind to me. He talked about books I should be reading and said: "reading can bring you knowledge of the world you may not see. I graduated from Cheletenham High School in 1982
Posted by: Kevin Trusty | May 13, 2006 04:44 PM
This book was an incredible read!It is great to refer to this site and hear the Sunday Brunch. I would love to hear more. I live in Mass. and am 25 right now. I can really identify with David's difficulty of being left behind and feeling inadequate in this world. It is nice to know that someone as special as David existed and thank you Ken for sharing your stories.
Posted by: Michelle Horner | June 2, 2006 11:07 AM
I am typically not a person who enjoys non-fiction, however, I could not put this book down. The author truly made David lifelike. It was a great quick read and a truly beautiful tribute. They must have shared a wonderful relationship.
Posted by: Julie Wood | July 12, 2006 03:45 PM
Given some of the news of the day (terror plots on flights from the UK) and war in Israel David's voice seems louder and closer than ever.
Posted by: Bruce Asam | August 10, 2006 06:18 AM
The book fell into my hands while trying to choose another book by Nancy Hewitt for my birthday. After I put your book back in its place on the shelf, it kept on calling me from the corner of my eye. I am so glad it did, because I could not put it down and now after reading the last page, I miss it. I miss David.
I am grieving because the book ended and I am realizing that, I am grieving on David.
I wish all the best for your family
Shirley Zohar
(I am originally from Israel. I apologize for any grammar or spelling mistakes…..)
Posted by: shirley zohar | October 30, 2006 09:51 PM