SOMEDAY THIS PAIN WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU

Lincoln Hoppe walks a fine line in his performance. Some narrators might have mistakenly chosen to vocally depict James as whiny or, in the other direction, severely depressed. However, Hoppe elicits the complicated range of emotions that the young 18-year-old is grappling with throughout the story. The summer after graduating from high school, James finds himself despondent and directionless, utterly uninterested in the vibrant world of New York City. Slowly, his life spirals out of control as he retracts his decision to attend Brown University and behaves more erratically than ever. Therapy doesn't seem to help, and his mom is too busy getting married (and divorced) for the third time to notice what’s going on with her son. L.E. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2009]