OK…so a bit ago, I finished The Correspondent (audio) by Virginia Evans. It’s gotten great reviews, especially the audio version (and I can truly understand that). And for a first book, she’s certainly knocked it out of the part with such a clever concept. It’s called an epistolary novel in that the entirety of the book is revealed in letters and emails between her characters, of which there are many.

My initial response after the first 30 minutes was quite positive with excellent narration and interesting ‘letters’. (An aside, in my youth, I too was a very active letter writer, especially during my college/grad school days and early professional life. So, the ‘epistolary’ idea was a great hook. Now…wait for the ‘but’

But, after a couple of hours, I began to lose track of who was writing whom not to mention the subject matter and found I had to rewind and relisten to catch up. I stayed with it over the long haul as our Correspondent aged (we were actually close to the same age…I’m 79) and talked about the travails of aging, and aging alone.

I would give it 4 stars as a ‘final answer’ for the sheer determination of writing all these letters (and their responses). What a fun time she must have had!