The Children's Crusade

February 2, 2015
Packer (The Dive from Clausen’s Pier) begins her well-crafted family saga from the ground up with pediatrician Bill Blair’s Portola Valley, Calif., land purchased in 1954. Bill marries Penny, a young woman eager to have children—but she didn’t count on four kids, which forges her identity as a mother instead of the artist she yearns to become. Her children are intuitively aware of her distance and poignantly try to find a way to bring her closer to them. Their stories unfold through distinctive narrative styles, including both first- and third-person sections, suited to the characters: stressed internist Robert, brilliant psychiatrist Rebecca, dreamy teacher Ryan, and reckless drifter James. The multiple perspectives help render the complicated family fully. Of the siblings, James is the only one to relocate, and he periodically returns over the years. The impetus for his current visit stems from an idea that shocks his siblings, prompting them to examine their childhood to find the answer. “Or rather, I remembered my memory of the moment, because after so long that’s what memory is: the replaying of the filmstrip that’s slightly warped from having gone through the projector so many times,” Rebecca thinks. Packer is an accomplished storyteller whose characters are as real as those you might find around your dinner table. Readers will be taken with this vibrant novel.

June 29, 2015
In 1954, pediatrician Bill Blair buys three acres of land in California and marries his girlfriend, Penny. They have four children. Dissatisfied as a housewife and mother, Penny moves into the shed, becomes an artist, and eventually abandons the family. The children grow up but still bear the emotional scars and resentments of childhood, which come to the fore when the youngest wants to sell their childhood home. This novel presents a challenge for audio: its chapters jump around among different time periods nonchronologically, and different chapters are told from different points of view—some are written in the omniscient third person, and others are told in first person from the grown children’s perspectives. Even with different actors for each first-person character, the story is hard to follow. The narrators all read with expression, but none makes any effort to differentiate the characters’ voices at all, save for a slightly higher pitch for female characters. So in scenes of all the adult children arguing, it’s difficult to keep track of who is saying what, especially since three of the four main characters have names beginning with R. This is one book that’s better fit for print. A Scribner hardcover.

This audiobook is expansive in its narrative voices as well as its narrative scope. The story begins in 1950s California and goes on to span decades with the Blair family, a realistically flawed group. One quickly comes to care about the characters, who live vividly in one's imagination, thanks to Packer's gift with words. Cotter Smith et al. are expressive narrators as the novel's point of view shifts from chapter to chapter. As each narrator portrays one of the Blair siblings, their individual voices blend beautifully with those of the surrounding chapters, creating a true familial effect. The strong quality in each voice not only provides aural unity but also propels the listener forward. Flawlessly paced and produced, this is an outstanding listen. L.B.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine