TIGHTROPE Americans Reaching for Hope

Actress Jennifer Garner narrates with finesse and restraint as she delivers harrowing scenes of poor Americans acting rashly and sometimes violently in the face of their daily struggles. Her tempo and cadence are also just right for the parts of this work that are a more sociological approach in detailing the harsh economic realities of America’s rural poor. This audiobook focuses on the problems of small-town and rural Americans—particularly lack of educational opportunity, obesity, and drug addiction—through the lens of journalist Kristof and his wife and writing partner, WuDunn. Kristof hails from tiny Yamhill, Oregon, where he still helps run his family’s farm. Many of the moving stories in this work concern people he grew up with, so their problems hit home. This fine audiobook matters. A.D.M. 2021 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2020]