AND WE STAY

Narrator Erin Spencer's flat voice mirrors the deflated heroine she portrays. Emily Beam transfers to Amherst School for Girls, located in the hometown of her idol, Emily Dickinson. She arrives in a state of turmoil after having discovered she was pregnant; breaking up with her boyfriend, who shot himself in front of her; and having an abortion. While appropriate to the story, Spencer's unvaried tone creates an oppressive monotony for the listener. She shines when she reads Emily's poems, which are poignant and healing for heroine and listener alike. To be fair, Spencer has a lot to juggle in a story that mixes poetry and prose, present and past, the poems the heroine writes and those she reads, as well as imagined conversations with Dickinson. S.W. [Published: AUGUST 2014]