I don’t usually review the books I hear on tape, or rather on iPod, because listening to books is a very different experience than actually reading them, plus I tend to choose a different sort of book when it’s on tape: more plot-driven, also sometimes sillier or fluffier. But this book was a real book, a good book. It was no less physical because it was whispered in my ear, and it is certainly worth noting.

The story line is nothing too all-fired unique: one of those stories where several characters tell the intersecting stories of their lives, and it’s assumed that when they coalesce at the end, there will deep some *deep* or *important* meaning (a la the movie Crash). I know y’all know what I’m talking about. But the voices of the characters and the language used to tell their stories catapulted this novel above that perhaps-overused plot device. These are vivid and surprising women, each unique and interesting. And the language? I swooned. With a style very similar to my fave Toni Morrison, Naylor’s words are are sensuous and tactile; they fall like marbles, bounce, spin around, roll away, rhythmic and sonorous. Much credit has to go to the voice talent on the recording, certainly, but these words have life, have feet to get up and walk about the room. That part about swooning? Really, my heart beats faster and my knees weaken when I hear an author who can string a sentence like this: Morrison at the beginning of Jazz, Nabokov in Lolita (“Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.” You see what I mean? Knees. Weak.)

As suspected and hammered over the head with, the ending was *deep* and *important,* like you knew it would be. I prefer my “morals of the story” to be a little more organic and less predictable than that. But the journey to get there was a fun one and that made this book worth reading, on paper or on tape.

Note: I bought the book on Audible and have the file in my possesion, if anyone wants to take a listen.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars – Book club selection