Songs Without Words

By: Ann Packer

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Ann Packer’s debut novel, The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, was a nationwide bestseller that established her as one of our most gifted chroniclers of the interior lives of women. Now, in her long-awaited second novel, she takes us on a journey into a lifelong friendship pushed to the breaking point.
Liz and Sarabeth were childhood neighbors in the suburbs of northern California, brought as close as sisters by the suicide of Sarabeth’s mother when the girls were just sixteen. In the decades that followed–through Liz’s marriage and the birth of her children, through Sarabeth’s attempts to make a happy life for herself despite the shadow cast by her mother’s act–their relationship remained a source of continuity and strength. But when Liz’s adolescent daughter enters dangerous waters that threaten to engulf the family, the fault lines in the women’s friendship are revealed, and both Liz and Sarabeth are forced to reexamine their most deeply held beliefs about their connection. Songs Without Words is about the sometimes confining roles we take on in our closest relationships, about the familial myths that shape us both as children and as parents, and about the limits–and the power–of the friendships we create when we are young.

Missing something crucial

Any additional comments?

Technically solid writing is the best I can say. Horrible in every other way. The reader ends the book still waiting for the semblance of a story to really emerge. Reader pulls off an okay performance, given the lack of exciting/interesting material she was given.

Sad

A depressing book about suicide and its impact on the lives of friends and family

Boring and depressing

I agree with the other reviewers who felt that it was depressing, boring and hard to keep listening to. I also kept thinking there must be more to the story, but there never was. I don't think there was even one character in the book who wasn't unhappy. I wish I hadn't wasted my time finishing the book.

Spoiled by the narrator

When I donwloaded this book, the preview of the narration was not available, and I have learned, for good, that the narration makes the listening experience. I will have to read Ann Packer's latest in print form in order to fairly critique her book.

drawn out agony.....

I have a little over an hour left on this book and I am only listening to the end because I keep thinking that something interesting has to happen at some point!! The characters are all difficult to like, self centered and depressing - I find it hard to have any compassion for any of them. The book is excruciatingly slow moving....I expected so much more from this author. I think the narrator is fine, she just doesn't have much to work with on this one.
The book deals with suicide and I have to say that at several points I was hoping that ALL of the characters would commit suicide and put this listener out of her misery!!!
Don't bother with this one.