Narrator Tim Andrés Pabon captures the uniquely American tone embodied in this globe-trotting novel based on the life of Joe Sanderson—a Midwestern kid who began his life on the road in 1960 by hitchhiking to Mexico City. In pursuit of endless adventure and grist for his never completed “great American novel,” Sanderson moved from hanging out with Rastas in Jamaica to crossing the DMZ in Korea to working with the UN in strife-torn Biafra. He finally found himself embedded with Salvadoran revolutionaries in 1980. Pabon’s fluency in Spanish becomes essential while reading the many Spanish passages and place names. Pabon’s voice registers sadness and loss when Sanderson was killed by the U.S. backed Salvadoran army—a tragic coda to a wandering life.
Pub Date: 2020
Duration: 14 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781250752833
Publisher: Macmillan 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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