THE BAR HARBOR RETIREMENT HOME FOR FAMOUS WRITERS (AND THEIR MUSES)

Narrator Bernadette Dunne delivers a story featuring famous retired authors and editors, and their collaborative writing project about love, lies, and loss. Dunne works hard to make the romance in the novel flow smoothly amid the squabbling of the literary greats. But her straightforward approach makes it difficult to differentiate the past from the present. In particular, she rarely invests inflection or emotion in her descriptions of the May-December romance between author Alfonse Carducci and orderly Cecibel Bringer, a woman who is scarred both literally and figuratively. Dunne's drowsy performance of this meandering story challenges listeners to remain engaged. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2018]