The Crying Tree

May 11, 2009
This complex, layered story of a family's journey toward justice and forgiveness comes together through spellbinding storytelling. Deputy sheriff Nate Stanley calls home one day and announces he's accepted a deputy post in Oregon. His wife, Irene, resents having to uproot herself and their children, Shep and Bliss, from their small Illinois town, but Nate insists it's for the best. Once they've moved into their new home, Shep sets off to explore Oregon's outdoors, and things seem to be settling in nicely until one afternoon when Nate returns home to find his 15-year-old son beaten and shot in their kitchen. After Shep dies in Nate's arms, the family seeks vengeance against the young man, Daniel Joseph Robbin, accused of Shep's murder. In the 19 years between Shep's death and Daniel's legal execution, Bliss becomes all but a caretaker for her damaged parents, and a crisis pushes Irene toward the truth about what happened to Shep. Most of the big secret is fairly apparent early on, so it's a testament to Rakha's ability to create wonderfully realized characters that the narrative retains its tension to the end.

Carol Monda is powerfully attuned to the emotional contours of Rakha's highly charged novel. She is less strong in the distinctiveness of her characterizations. Other than dropping to a lower register for male characters, she doesn't offer a rich array of highly individualized vocalizations. The subject matter is wrenching: the apparent murder of a young boy, the approaching execution of his convicted murderer two decades later, and the path of the dead boy's mother as she walks away from an obsession with retribution. Monda does not insult listeners with false sentimentality, offering instead hard-earned internal struggles and truths. Hers is a carefully modulated performance--and an anguishing one. M.O. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine