THE NIGHT JOURNAL

Meg Mabry, single and 37, has made a life for herself in Austin by flourishing in her career as a scientist and tolerating the insistent presence of her grandmother, who raised her. Until now, she has managed to avoid the semi-celebrity of her ancestors' frontier life in New Mexico, made famous by her grandmother's career as a historian. Narrator Kimberly Farr's consistent voice portrays Meg with sensitivity, starting with her independence. Farr also reveals Meg's hidden insecurities as she reluctantly experiences the famous nineteenth-century journals of her grandmother's mother. With a straightforward femininity, Farr chooses to project barely discernible differences between the characters, and she deftly handles the Mexican and Native American voices. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 06]