FORGOTTEN ON SUNDAY

Narrator Elisabeth Lagelee uses a soft French accent for this story of love and loss set in Milly, France. Twenty-one-year-old Justine works as a nursing assistant in a retirement/nursing home, where she collects the stories of her charges, especially those of Hélène, a nearly 100-year-old resident. Hélène recounts her life from the 1920s through the Nazi Occupation, including her love of Lucien, whose spirit still haunts her. Lagelee's soporific performance lacks character distinctions and has no variations in tone or pitch, even when there's a change of speaker. Justine's and Hélène's stories flow in and out of the narrative with barely a ripple, forcing listeners to strain to follow this lonely tale of forgotten family. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2024]