THE TATTOOED GIRL

Oates's novel about an intellectual and his barely literate assistant provides a narrator with a huge built-in advantage: The central characters couldn't be more different. Joshua Seigl is an acclaimed 38-year-old writer in upstate New York who suffers from a mysterious degenerative illness. He hires Alma as his new assistant, projecting on her an idealized nobility that couldn't be further from the truth. The book shows people so locked into their own points of view that they are blind to the essence of others. Kate Fleming certainly delineates the two characters--who couldn't? Her Alma is affecting, barely verbal but never without a hint of menace. But Fleming ages Seigl far beyond his age in the book, causing listeners to continually do mental calibrations. M.O. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 03/JAN 04]