Sukey's Favorite

Unless
By Carol Shields
HarperAudio, $32.95
7.5 hours, ISBN 0060098899

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Unless is the title of Carol Shields' beautiful new novel, read in this unabridged audio by Joan Allen. It's also a word, as Shields says, used by writers to "prise open the crusted world and reveal another plane of being." Shields does just that with a light, measured touch so deft that you can actually feel a mother's love, pain and puzzlement, the solace of a long, happy marriage, a serious woman writer's concern about her place in a still-male-dominated literary culture. The mother, the author, the woman telling us about life, good and anguished, is Reta Winters, a novelist and translator who lives in Canada, the mother of three daughters and the wife of a devoted husband (much like Shields herself). But, as the book opens, her eldest daughter has left college to sit and beg on a Toronto street corner, and Reta is discovering what it means to live without the "useful monotony of happiness." Listening to Shields' wit, grace and quiet eloquence is a true audio pleasure.

Unearthing the truth in Guatemala

REVIEWS BY SUKEY HOWARD

Tempe Brennan, the forensic anthropologist who stars in Kathy Reichs' best-selling mystery series, is a good woman who does grisly work. In Grave Secrets, her latest and most affecting book yet, Tempe is in the Guatemalan highlands helping human rights workers identify the bones of women and children who were massacred by the army during their long, horrific Civil War. When a body that may be linked to the disappearances of several young women is found in a septic tank (one of Tempe's least favorite specialities) in Guatemala City, Tempe is asked to join the investigating team. It's a tricky identification that leads to a trickier state of affairs—one that could implicate the Canadian ambassador and his determinedly difficult daughter. Doing her professional best to work with both the past and present murders, Tempe begins to realize there might be a slender connecting thread, but it's a thread that just might choke her. As she has done before, reader Katherine Borowitz meets the challenges of many accents and many voices with absolute aplomb.


Making arrangements

Stephen L. Carter's big literary thriller, The Emperor of Ocean Park, has gotten major attention since his multi-million dollar, two-book contract was signed, and that attention is well-deserved. Carter has written a truly suspenseful cliffhanger that offers an unusual window into the world of the black professional and captures the essence of family ties and tensions. His characters are wonderfully drawn, especially Talcott Garland, the cynical law professor and son of a former federal judge who almost made it to the Supreme Court. It all begins at Talcott's father's funeral when a sinister, shadowy, ex-CIA operative who was a close friend of the dead judge suddenly materializes to ask Talcott about "the arrangements." What they are and what they ultimately lead to drives the narrative and drives the judge's son to play out an elaborate and dangerous game. Peter Francis James reads so convincingly, you'll never doubt that you're listening to Talcott Garland tell his story.


A functional family

If you read the interview with Jeanne Ray about her new novel, Step-Ball-Change, in our May issue and haven't read the book yet, then you're in luck. Don't misunderstand, I'm certainly not putting the book down; I just think this charmer is even more fun on audio, performed by its charming author. Counter to Tolstoy's famous dictum that happy families are all alike, Caroline and Tom McSwain, happily married for many years with four happy, grownup kids, are not really like any other family I know, but that's their unique appeal. Not that they're problem-free—Caroline's never-close, soon-to-be-divorced sister arrives needing much TLC; their only daughter, just engaged to the most eligible bachelor in all of Raleigh, is having qualms; their whole house is literally teetering on a weakening foundation; and the crew that's working on it has become part of daily life. They muddle through with wit and wisdom won from long years of tolerance and togetherness—and it's a muddle you won't want to miss.


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