I MARRIED YOU FOR HAPPINESS

Choosing Barbara Caruso for Lily Tuck’s elegiac new novel is inspired casting. Nina, whose thoughts we hear through a long night as she sits alone with the body of her husband, is from “all over,” having lived in Europe and South America, and speaks fluent French. Caruso gives her an elegant American voice with the tiniest burr of something exotic, which seems just right as Nina thinks back through a long, loving, but not uncomplicated marriage, and forward again to the stunning present, trying to accept the unthinkable fact that Philip is not just napping before dinner, but dead. Tuck’s skill is immense, as is Caruso’s, and there’s not a word of this heartbreaking but compelling listening experience that feels false or unearned. B.G. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2011]