Julia Whelan superbly narrates this story of four friends--South Korean Ji Sun, Southern Margaret, wealthy Alice, and biracial Lainey--who meet as freshmen at an elite New England college. Whelan is exceptionally skilled at conveying dialogue. She creates a distinctive and believable voice for every character, including secondary characters, male and female. Indeed, every character is well considered, with their range of emotions and underlying apprehensions projected in Whelan's varied and impressive portrayals. Her remarkably steady pacing guides listeners through frequent shifts in point of view and an array of scenes ranging from college life to marriages, careers, and illnesses. Listeners will be swept along by Whelan's performance of this engrossing audiobook.
Pub Date: 2019
Duration: 11 hrs
DD ISBN: 9780593148655
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
American colleges are favorable locales for ghastly event and hair-tearing circumstance. There is, for instance, a good deal of pleasure to be had out of professor and past-prodigy Grady Tripp's awful life, as portrayed by Michael Chabon in WONDER BOYS. There is a certain amount of slapstick here, but it's balanced by Chabon's superb portrait of a gale-force mid-life crisis, a soul-destroying albatross of an unfinished novel and the mind-numbing inconsequence of writers' conferences. David Colacci sounds a little starved for oxygen in his reading, but that's not exactly out of keeping with Grady Tripp's personal gestalt.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: N/A
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
As a group of men bring their own emotional baggage to their football-obsessed reunion, R.C. Bray delivers his usual solid narration. He shifts his tones slightly but enough to put the listener in the motel with the men, revealing their foibles as the story progresses. The narrator's role in this book is a descriptive one, and Bray is a good guide. His narration becomes extra important because this is a rare instance when there almost isn't a protagonist. The author's well-written story--which alternates between serious and laugh-out-loud funny--uses quarterback Joe Theismann's 1985 injury, a broken leg, as a McGuffin.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 5 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781681680057
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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