College professor, father, and middling husband, Michael Ahearn successfully holds himself at a safe distance from emotion. In his search for that elusive something to give his life meaning, he leaves the dreary comforts of home and family for the Caribbean and an exotic woman, where he finds himself in the midst of a fever-dream filled with political, spiritual, and emotional chaos, and an earthy, brooding eroticism. As Michael struggles with his obsession, narrator Arliss Howard captures his moral and emotional dilemma, creating an intensity bordering on delirium. He is less successful at capturing believable French or Caribbean accents, how-ever, stretching credibility in dialogue exchanges. Even so, Stone's beautifully crafted look into an ordinary man's soul pits the intellectual against the spiritual against the erotic, and the listener wins.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2003
Duration: 7 hrs
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This audiobook is initially daunting. Sixteen hours long and constructed of subtle—at times, even confusing—shifts in point of view, it may feel overwhelming in the first hour. But sticking with George Newbern’s narration and Gilbert’s prose yields great rewards. Newbern’s performance is funny, thoughtful, heartrending, and utterly engrossing. When the famous, now aging, author A.N. Dyer calls his distant sons to his side, Newbern is provided ample characters to animate, and he does so with perfect pacing and what seems like an innate understanding of the novel. He creates a rhythm that makes the changing perspectives easy to follow and Gilbert’s details accessible. & SONS is a perfect example of how a skilled narrator can make a good book even better.
Pub Date: July 23, 2013
Duration: 16 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9780385359566
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Following multiple lives over six decades, this is a story of cultural shifts, the effects of racial prejudice, and family secrets. Joy Osmanski's narration is engaged and easy to listen to. There are times when her narration is uneven and character accents are inconsistent, but she moves the story along at an excellent pace. Will Damron capably narrates a few descriptive paragraphs at the beginning to set the scene. During the '50s, as bombs are explode in Nevada's deserts to entertain Las Vegas tourists, four sets of characters experience the destruction caused by prejudice and social upheaval in their lives. The author skillfully integrates the lives of vivid and realistic characters, bringing them to a satisfying and surprising denouement in the final chapters.
Pub Date: May 2, 2017
Duration: 11 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9781508234715
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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