The Road Less Traveled

By: Victor Warren, Harlene Stein

Narrated by: Victor Warren

In this award-winning screenplay, Bee Haden convinces her son, Tom, to drive with her from Los Angeles to Cape Cod. On the road they eventually discover that love is the only thing we can really give our children.

©2021 Victor Warren, Harlene Stein (P)2021 Victor Warren, Harlene Stein

Critic reviews

Author/narrator Victor Warren and his mother co-wrote this screenplay about a mother and son who take a road trip from Los Angeles to Cape Cod to see the country and to rediscover what makes them a family. The screenplay format can be a bit jarring when read as an audiobook. The format sometimes takes the listener out of the moment with stage instructions like: "Interior Bee's home, night." Warren taps into his acting skills to narrate a story that is more about emotional discovery than travel. M.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2021]

Yep.... I thought it was great...

Even though I am as close to this as anyone can be. I am really proud of the work and am grateful to Spoken Realms, Cass Medcalf and my daughter Nicki Stein for their help in bringing this to life. I look forward to all comments and thoughts about this title.

Love is a Gift Not Always Received

Told in the style of a screenplay with narration and characters being performed wonderfully by Victor Warren, The Road Less Travelled flows to easily carry you to your own memories of parents and siblings with the joys and pains that come with growing up in a family. It is an engaging story of a slightly older mother and almost mid-life son, who upon the loss of the families' domineering father, embark on a cross-country road trip to help the mother start her new life.
Memories of the joyful and the harrowing past come to them each as they travel along, and work into each other's emotional company full-time with this new road routine.
They also find that the trip will bring them back to themselves to reason with the family they were, and maybe begin to see the family they are to be, while visiting their other family members and moving along these less traveled roads of life, and family love.

A beautiful reminder

I spent some time this weekend tucked under a blanket listening to The Road Less Traveled. I've not listened to a screenplay before and wondered how complicated it might be to follow the various locations and shots - Victor Warren deftly takes us from shot to shot, allowing us enough time to "see" the location before the scene begins. Characters are clear and varied. The narration reminded me a bit of George Guidall's reading of I'll Take You There by Wally Lamb. Warren's voice was about as comforting as the blanket I was under and painted a picture with this heartbreaker of a family story. I may have known where the story was heading, but I was absolutely going to hang on for the ride. This screenplay is a lovely reminder of forgiveness, togetherness and family amid all its complications. it's never too late to repair that which is broken. Clearly the material is close to home for Warren, which is a true benefit to his storytelling - you can hear the hurt and love in his voice. Worth the listen.

Family

The Road Less Traveled is an award-winning screenplay written by talented narrator Victor Warren and his mother, Harlene Stein. With a beautiful introduction written and narrated by Victor's daughter, The Road Less Traveled combines true events with fiction and it is lovingly performed by Victor Warren.

Easy to follow, immersive and thought-provoking, The Road Less Traveled follows a mother and her son in their trip from Los Angeles to Cape Cod. Along the way, they realize that the only thing a parent can and should give to his child is true and unconditional love.

I really enjoyed this screenplay turned audiobook and I recommend it to everyone! I especially liked the underlying message of the story and the vivid descriptions of the characters. So, if you are in the mood for a quick, interesting listen, don't hesitate to give The Road Less Traveled a shot! 

This is not my first screenplay, but it's one of the better ones! 

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Emotional Journey

A moving and perceptive piece about family relationships. That it's read by one of the authors adds more depth. A word of advice...this is not narrative prove, it is a screenplay. If you're not used to the screenplay format and find it difficult to follow, stick with it. You will find that the format quickly fades into the background and allows the story to shine through.

A Dramatic Screenplay About Family

4.5 out of 5 stars

I’ve listened to a few of Mr. Warren’s narrations now, but I wanted to dive into his own audiobook when I got the chance. I knew very little about it and honestly the synopsis, while short, doesn’t give too much away. I knew going into it that it was going to be read by one of the authors (Victor Warren) and that it was going to be about a road trip and family.

What I didn’t realize was it was going to make me cry at the end. I didn’t realize that Warren was going to be able to draw so much emotion out of the characters while making them feel like they were part of your family. The back story that they go over is heart breaking, but swinging the other way – the finale and the final moments of the book (no spoilers) were completely redeeming for all the characters.

Overall, I thought that The Road Less Traveled was great and really would hit home for anyone with a past that they’re trying to run away from. Especially those who thought they knew everything about how certain people in their family behaved. Taking a road trip is a good place to hash that out, but so was the final place that Bee ended up (still trying not to spoil anything).

The audiobook was really well performed – a few times early in it I thought that the stage directions and the screenplay-like stuff in it were going to bother me, but once I got into the story they just melted into the background. Warren performs this well with a lot of heart – you can tell that this means something to him.