T.C. Boyle excels at rollicking black humor, and humanity’s attempt to control the environment provides him with ample fodder. Alma Boyd Takasue is a National Park Service biologist who is bent on ridding the islands off the coast of Santa Barbara of vermin to return it to a natural environment for the native birds and foxes. (Such hubris!) Opposed is the equally zealous but more unpleasant David LaJoy, who believes that killing any animal is wrong. Narrator Anthony Heald dials up the irony an extra notch. He employs a strident tone to capture LaJoy’s volatility and slightly increases his pace for LaJoy’s inner dialogue, through which the biologist expresses constant irritation with life’s inconveniences. Heald’s hippy-dippy voice for LaJoy’s friend, Wilson, is marvelous fun, although Takasue’s New Zealand feral pig-hunting ally is less successful.
Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2011
Duration: 16 hrs, 15 mins
Publisher: Blackstone 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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