EARLY WARNING

Smiley's outstanding new novel, second in a trilogy, is a panoramic story of twentieth-century America experienced through generations of an Iowa farm family. It cries out for a narrator with a finely tuned ear for different regional voices and a knack for distinguishing this large cast of characters one from another, especially since the listener lacks the printed family tree the hard copy provides. The fine comic actor Lorelei King is, alas, miscast here. Characters from East Coast to West all speak with King's own non-standard pronunciation, and she gives her sentences a dozy rhythm, with a habitual breathy softening of the last word in a phrase or sentence that smothers the author's meaning. This ambitious and impressive book deserves better. B.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2015]