A SONG FOR THE RIVER Fire Season, Book 2

Narrator Adam Verner seems miscast in his reading of essayist Philip Connors's dark memoir. Part elegy, part lamentation, part catalogue of ailments, this audiobook seems less a song than a requiem. Verner's reading style--airy and hopeful--is at odds with the seriousness of the content. Connors writes evocatively of his recently deceased friends, his lonely education as a forest fire lookout, and a tragic plane crash that killed students from the Aldo Leopold Charter School in Silver City, New Mexico. He also describes his personal trials: physical (his hip replacements and prostate disease) and emotional (his recent divorce) with restraint. He is a serious critic of the state of the republic and a champion of environmental issues, the Gila River especially. A different narrator was needed. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2018]