Christina Traister's narration reflects 21-year-old Reno's charged emotions as she moves to New York City and the 1970s Greenwich Village art scene. An aspiring artist, Reno comes from "reckless, unsentimental people," and she loves two things: drawing and speed. Reno falls for Sandro, the son of an Italian motorcycle manufacturer. Traister easily handles the flashbacks highlighting Sandro's father's life, from his childhood in Egypt to his horrific WWI experiences to the founding of his motorcycle empire. Traister's performance makes Kushner's superb prose credible, beautifully reflecting the art world and political upheavals of the period. FLAMETHROWERS was a finalist of the 2013 National Book Awards, as was Kushner's earlier work TELEX FROM CUBA in 2008.
Pub Date: 2013
Duration: 14 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781469287119
Publisher: Brilliance 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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