Audio/HardcoverThe book got markedly better when I moved from audio to physical book -- mainly because Nancy Travis (the reader) has such a distinctive voice that I kept hearing NANCY rather than the mood and nuance of the story she was speaking.
This is a group of linked stories set in the city of Blackwell, MA, spanning generations. We see its first settlers, then shift forward several years to see the city through another's eyes, then shift again... and again... and again.
I was surprised that the device worked so well. I wish I had read it from the beginning rather than starting out with just the hearing, because I think it would have been easier to hold in my head how this descendant related to the figures in earlier stories (I'm a visual learner), but it didn't really hurt it to think of each story as stand-alone. There was truth and beauty and sadness along with a rich sense of history that so few of us enjoy about our OWN hometowns; we're so nomadic that most of us are starting our adult lives from scratch rather than building on the lives of our ancestors.
I really liked this, while still feeling slightly disconnected from it all -- but I have the suspicion that it was the Travis-effect rather than a fault of the book itself.
B+
