Desert Notebooks

Narrator David Bendena succeeds in animating this provocative, nonlinear audiobook with his careful tone, judicious pace, close reading, and forward-moving cadence. He narrates Ehrenreich's musings, reports, descriptions, and commentary with enough urgency to capture the author's apocalyptic take on the fate of the planet (warning: it may already be too late); the political moment (he dubs Trump "the Rhino"), and his own personal journey from the remote Joshua Tree to dizzying Vegas. Nature, the desert, the convulsions of the land--ranging from overheating to wildfires to unexpected profusions of Painted Lady butterflies--share space in this auspicious audiobook--as do philosophy, literary analysis, and an ongoing and fascinating preoccupation with time itself. DESERT NOTEBOOKS arrives at a most opportune time. It is strong medicine for an aching world. A.D.M. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine