STRANGERS AT THE FEAST

Hosting a family dinner at Thanksgiving, anthropology professor Ginny Olson is disorganized and only marginally hospitable. Renée Raudman narrates this novel in a slow, sonorous manner. Haughty characters, mismatched conversation, and dysfunctional relations open this family saga. In scene after scene, Raudman keeps pace with the complaints and the whining, the dissatisfaction of each person’s life. Telling the story from different characters’ perspectives, Raudman struggles to keep the listener engaged with any of them. But the listener who has the patience to slog through the endless character development and internal dialogue will finally hear Raudman shift into a dramatic crescendo when the Olsons’ world falls apart and the story takes off. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2010]