REVIEWS BY SUKEY HOWARD
The short of it is, go for the long of it. The listeners on your gift list will be delighted with the many memorable novels from the season's rich roster—unabridged audio presentations that speak volumes.
The longest of the long, at 32 hours,
is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke's extraordinary literary fantasy that has become the surprise best-selling smash of this season. It involves a reclusive practitioner of magic (a fading art in 1806), the daring young novice he takes on as a pupil and the effect they have when they join England's cause against Napoleon. But that's only a minimal sketch of this wonderfully detailed, witty combo of dark mythology and delicious social comedy. Simon Prebble reads in his honeyed British voice and adds narrative magic of his own.
Suffused with magic, too, Peter and the Starcatchers, by the unlikely, but decidedly dynamic duo of
Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, is a fabulous tale of high adventure and a treat for the whole family. You'll meet pitiless pirates, treacherous traitors, a few good grownups and—best of all—Peter (observe how his story pans out), the intrepid leader of a band of orphan boys, and his new, fearless friend Molly, as they risk everything to recover a battered trunk that holds the stuff of stars and the power of good and evil. Jim Dale, the wizard of audio narration, is in top form.
No magic here, but there may be buried treasure at the end
of The Rule of Four, Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason's debut novel and runaway bestseller. Days before
graduation, two Princeton seniors who have spent years peeling back the labyrinthine layers of a coded, weirdly
erotic Renaissance manuscript finally crack the cipher—only to find themselves in an equally labyrinthine
maelstrom of murder, madness and betrayal. Erudite, intricate, well paced and entertaining all the way.
Jeff Woodman, who reads this 13-hour tour de force, keeps the tension high and the tone tenable.
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Two from perennial favorites
Philip Roth's latest, much lauded The Plot Against America, brilliantly imagines what a Jewish family in New Jersey would have faced if Charles Lindbergh, anti-Semitic and anti-interventionist, had won the presidential election of 1940. Engaging, provocative, relevant and effectively read by Ron Silver.
The prolific Joyce Carol Oates is back with The Falls, a compelling, cascading tale of love shadowed by doom, a career ruined by the desire to right a wrong (think Love Canal's emerging horrors in the early 1960s), a family dragged into genteel poverty, children struggling to discover the truth about their parents' past—and go beyond. Set against the thundering fury of Niagara Falls, it's performed with intensity and understanding by Anna Fields.
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Life as a work in progress
An Unfinished Life is Mark Spragg's gracefully spare, beautifully evoked story of a stubborn, embittered father, his determined daughter-in-law, her irrepressibly resilient, remarkable 10-year-old daughter and the ties that truly bind. Read in tandem by Tony Amendola and Judith Marx.
Assured, accomplished Ward Just is in his element in An Unfinished Season, a subtle mid-20th century portrait of rabid anti-communism, escalating McCarthyism, union unrest and government corruption, intertwined with a young man's first encounter with love, first realization of class struggles and a growing awareness of his parents' unraveling marriage.
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