THE FREE WORLD Art and Thought in the Cold War

Narrator David Colacci approaches this opinionated, engrossing audiobook with a practiced voice that lets its numerous stories tell themselves without fanfare. He adroitly captures the author's shifts in tone--from professorial to chatty, for example--and keeps the listener's attention on this broad-brush look at the cultural history of the Cold War. The narration moves the intertwining topics forward, not an easy task in a kaleidoscopic work that ranges from the Beat poets to CIA shenanigans and to analyses of art and philosophy, music and the media. Menand is especially good on matters relating to literature, political thought, and modern art (especially abstract expressionism). It should be noted that architecture and sculpture are given little attention. That said, this audiobook is a monumental work. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2021]