HOME

Toni Morrison sets the gold standard for a writer narrating her own work. Is there something higher than gold? Platinum? HOME is an elliptical book—so lyrically spare and carefully written it approaches poetry. For an audio version to succeed, it has to replace the security of the words keeping still on the page with something else that will hold the listener in the same way. Morrison’s elegant, modulated, perfectly articulated performance does just that. It proceeds magisterially, giving every word exactly the weight it deserves and the time it needs to show the listener not only what has been said, but what is left unsaid. The story, of a damaged Korean war vet trying to get home, is at least in this telling, unforgettable. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2012]