WE WERE EIGHT YEARS IN POWER An American Tragedy

This collection of essays by Coates on the African-American experience contains one piece published in THE ATLANTIC magazine during each year of the Obama administration. Narrator Beresford Bennett's deliberate performance reflects his respect for the author, but his uneven cadences and unexpected emphases pull listeners out of the material. The essays--which cover topics ranging from Michelle Obama to Civil War restitution, the housing and finance sectors, and the prison system--are renewed via Coates's introductions and the perspective of time. The well-researched articles deserve listeners' full attention, but Bennett's questionable accents and mispronunciations eventually become too distracting. WE WERE EIGHT YEARS IN POWER, destined to be one of the most talked-about books of the year, should be read in print. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2017]