SIGHTS UNSEEN

Regional fiction is a special challenge for the audiobook performer. Especially in the literature of the American South, accents vary from state to state, class to class, race to race. Kate Fleming does a beautiful job with the many voices of this sad and funny story of Hattie, whose mother is known to her Carolina community as "that Barnes woman with all the problems," problems that today would be called being bi-polar or manic depressive. Hattie's father is nearly overwhelmed by loving a wife who is beautiful but often outrageous, and even a danger to others and herself. The household is held together by loving and lovely black Pearl; the story is held together by Kaye Gibbons's wry and sensitive writing and by Fleming's skillful performance. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 02]