06 Mar / Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn [in Booklist]
After successfully reporting on global hot spots, mostly in Asia, the Pulitzer Prized, bestselling power couple Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (Half the Sky, 2008) turn westward to Kristof’s hometown, Yamhill, Oregon, a rural community where a quarter of Kristof’s Number 6 school bus friends have since died. In reporting their lives – and deaths – Kristof and WuDunn give real names and intimate histories to the disturbing statistics plaguing the richest country in the world, which is suffering through failures in policy, government, medical care, education, and basic daily lives. What’s happening in Yamhill is hardly unique, as the couple traverses all 50 states, too easily finding examples of America’s “unraveling.”
Choosing audiobook newbie Jennifer Garner to narrate is, alas, a misstep: the girl-next-door-America’s-sweetheart personality she projects too often turns volatile and alarmist here, making her narration less affecting than a seasoned reader might have achieved. At recording’s end, Kristof and WuDunn take turns commandeering their extensive acknowledgements; their odd attempt at comic levity with their joint declaration, “any errors are entirely the fault of our spouse,” makes for a strange final track indeed.
Review: “Media,” Booklist, March 1, 2020
Readers: Adult
Published: 2020