THE OLD FOREST

This recording does so many things right. To begin with, Peter Taylor's classic story, set in 1930s Memphis, packs the substance of a novel while remaining brief enough to be swallowed in one sitting. It's a small masterpiece of spare writing and observant detail. Building on that auspicious foundation, Randal Cauldwell shows how effective a low-key narrator can be when reading a first-person text. As the story gets moving, you forget Cauldwell is there--he becomes the main character not through histrionics or accents, but simply by fading into the background and letting the prose take center stage. Nicely done. D.B. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 02/ JAN 03]