HOME FIRES An Intimate Portrait of One Middle-Class Family in Postwar America

Hats off to narrator Joe Barrett for mastering so many variations of the "Lawn Guyland" accent, an essential for this five-decade report on a New York Jewish-American family. (Imagine the Loud Family crossed with Philip Roth.) Barrett also voices a slew of Baby Boom icons--from Swami Satchidananda to Charlie Watts, not to mention a very convincing Ronald Reagan. Fans of family sagas--and listeners of a certain age--will keep their headphones glued on for all 28 hours of this epic family portrait. And when it's over, they may wonder, as does Sam Gordon, the Job-like patriarch, "You just don't see happy families anymore . . . Where are they?" R.W.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2014]