LUMINOUS AIRPLANES

A man renews a childhood romance upon returning to a small town in New York after a death in the family, but he finds that the woman he's seeing isn't the girl he knew. Charles Carroll's narration of the first-person point of view is engaging, drawing listeners into a life story that seems to be going nowhere. He delivers rambling meditations on just about everything with disarming, frank charm and recounts flashbacks with a compelling intensity that helps put the threads of the story in place. All these elements keep listeners on edge as the romance heads toward its inevitable conclusion. The protagonist isn't necessarily likable, but Carroll does a lot to make his flaws and failures interesting. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2012]