So Many Ways to Begin

October 2, 2006
David Carter grows up happy in post-WWII Coventry, England, where he combs bomb sites for things to collect and dreams of one day running his own museum. He lands a job at a local museum and, at age 22, learns from a mentally ill family friend that he was adopted as an infant. Irate and bewildered, David struggles to comprehend "how such a lie had been incorporated into official history" as he begins his adult life. His marriage to Eleanor provides some direction, but the couple is often rudderless, and McGregor (If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
) charts with a calculated dreariness David's frustrated attempts to locate his birth mother, Eleanor's terrible depressions, their professional letdowns, a few moments of happiness and the way "it wasn't what they'd imagined, this life." Once retired, David is introduced to the Internet, which yields a promising lead in his quest to find his birth mother. Melancholy permeates every page; readers looking for an earnest downer can't go wrong.

McGregor has perfectly captured the small dramas of "ordinary" life and created a simply beautiful picture of a life filled with joy, disappointment, sorrow, and surprise. Graham Padden's narrative style is enchanting. David Carter is a museum curator who sees his life through the everyday objects he secures and displays in his museum. Padden skillfully captures each diverse character--from the aunt with Alzheimer's to the Scottish mother who abuses her daughter to the woman who tried to do the right thing by pretending to be David's mother in wartime England. As the story frequently moves back and forth in time, Padden does an outstanding job keeping things on track and the listener engaged. S.G.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine