EVERYBODY RISE

People have been losing track of themselves while coveting someone else's birthright since Jacob and Esau. This splendid audiobook tells the old aspirational story with originality and keen observation of contemporary New York mores. Clifford's dialogue is sparkling. One of the book's pleasures, since character development is all, is watching a nice, bright, insecure young woman devolve quite believably into something repellent. The talented Katherine Kellgren overplays here, especially the older women; they all shout rather than speaking, and they all sound like Maggie Smith doing the Dowager Duchess of Downton Abbey, which flattens some psychological nuance in the text. On the other hand, the performance is ferociously entertaining, and the intensity of Kellgren's reading propels the plot in a way that is well-nigh irresistible. B.G. Winner of AudioFIle Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2015]