This historical fiction about Sylvia Plath and her circle of confessional poets is wonderfully performed by Maggi-Meg Reed, Karissa Vacker, and Teri Clark Linden. In 2019, three notebooks are discovered that are believed to be the handwritten notes of Plath's semi-autobiographical novel, THE BELL JAR. The story is told by Estee, curator of a contemporary auction house; Boston Rhodes, a pseudonym for Agatha White, Sylvia's literary rival; and Ruth Barnhouse, the psychiatrist treating Sylvia after a failed suicide attempt. Reed's cultured tone provides Estee with intelligence and dignity. Linden's voice drips poisonously as Boston Rhodes reveals her venomous side in a letter to influential poet Robert Lowell. Vacker's Dr. Barnhouse is forward-thinking, determined, and sympathetic. Well-written and well-read, this is choice listening. S.J.H Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Pub Date: 2022
Duration: 8 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063140035
Publisher: Harper 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.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
