THE YEAR WE LEFT HOME

Thompson’s latest is more a loosely connected collection of short stories than a novel. Members of the Erickson clan of Iowa appear, disappear, and then reappear throughout the thirty-year span of the book. Individual chapters stand alone as they tell a slice of the family’s history, but they don’t have any feeling of connection to each other. Although Cassandra Campbell has done a first-rate job on other audiobooks, this one is hard to follow because she seems to place pauses in unexpected places, especially in dialogue. Although the family’s story hits universal themes of love, alienation, and reconciliation, her matter-of-fact delivery distances the listener from engaging with the characters. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2011]