Piece Comment

Review of Keep It Simple


This is a personal essay about preparing for a child's upcoming 4th birthday party. The essayist is the father, and he recounts everything that he has to do to get ready. As the mother of two little ones, I can relate to the long list of chores and errands. But I think as an essay for the radio, this piece needs more to make me care as a listener. Essay/ commentary, though seeemingly simple, is one of the hardest genres to make work on the radio, I think. So many of the essays I hear broadcast on NPR fall flat, to my ears. This piece suffers from being perhaps too detail oriented, too list-like, and the "lesson" at the end about a son's happiness does not seem like enough to pull this piece along.