An American Tragedy

A moment occurs towards the end of this classic novel of crime and punishment when Grover Gardner delivers the voices of men on death row. Some sound resigned, others complain, one moans. These emulations of misery are palpable and demonstrate Gardner's subtle expertise as a narrator. A master performer, he elevates this naturalistic novel, an account of the strivings and disappointments of Clyde Griffiths, a flawed but fascinating protagonist whose rise and fall end when he commits a heinous crime and is electrocuted for it. Perhaps equally important are its precisely chiseled anti-capitalist details of a stratified collar factory with its nepotistic organization and its evocation of prison life--rigid, punitive, and unyielding--which will make even the most hard-hearted listener yearn for restorative justice. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine