FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES A Memoir

This audiobook is a welcome exception to light, and overly hopeful, memoirs. The author, a NEW YORK TIMES columnist, is unsparing in his truthfulness and emotion. Yes, there are hope and life and happiness, but Blow also accentuates the grittiness, racism, and challenges he faced growing up in the South in the 1970s. As narrator, Blow has a deep, low voice that has an Everyman quality to it. He reads much too slowly and with little variation in pitch and tone, but his diction is excellent, and his story is compelling. The importance of the book is that it's Blow's story, and he makes it sound personal. He creates a vivid world that is captivating and absorbing. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2015]