THE WHOLE ANIMAL

With her crisp narration, Laura Miyata provides only the briefest of pauses between the stories in this new collection. Her approach allows each story to become one part of "the whole animal." Each tale presents flawed human beings--men, women, and children--who bring to life what it's like to be alive in the world today. Miyata's dynamic intonation is well suited to the stories' descriptive writing; scenes and characters change rapidly, and her voice can be clipped, languorous, trepidatious, or miserable, as needed. While the narration is masterful, the overall effect of the collection is unsettling. Listeners are given pieces of the animal, but without true revelation they are just pieces. D.G.L. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2023]