A CATALOG OF BIRDS

Echoes of war haunt this audiobook. One character after another is altered by the aftershocks of the Vietnam War, and narrator Josh Bloomberg tries mightily to capture all their voices and sorrows. Siblings Billy and Nell are the heart of the story, and their shared history is laid out for the listener at a brisk pace. While Bloomberg's passion is attention grabbing, his depictions of some characters border on caricature, with villainous sneers or manic bursts. There are moments when his enthusiasm creates excess energy that emerges as a distracting sibilance, the "s's" too sharp and stinging. Other times, though, the prose and the performance blend seamlessly, and the timeless grief of life after war eases into tragic focus. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2018]