I have to admit I didn't finish listening to this piece. Maybe it's not fair of me to write a critique, but I have to say, I was 3 minutes in (I believe the piece is 6:30) and I had heard no tape. I believe that this is an adaptation of another piece I heard on PRX called "Kitty (somebody)'s War" where a family had bought a phonograph-record-making-machine and there's tape of people singing and talking. So I was expecting to hear some tape. When I hadn't heard any after 1/2 the piece had played, I gave up.

Perhaps the producer was saving this tape for the end. Perhaps she felt this added suspense. If so, for what it's worth, personally I didn't feel it.

I wonder whether the producer made an effort to find others to help her tell this story. I expected, for example, reminiscences from the people being spoken about. Or perhaps there would be reminiscences from those people's children or grandchildren. What I heard was one woman reading a litany of woes. That would have been fine if there had been an effort to universalize these woes. I did not hear that. What I heard was "Here's the tough time my relative had."

I should also say that the audio quality of the voice tracks was quite poor. It's particularly noticeable at one point where the voice track ends and the music sweeps in. There's some kind of hiss or crackle that suggests the voice tracks were recorded with inferior equipment.