O'HARA'S CHOICE

Published posthumously, O'HARA'S CHOICE is the final novel by bestselling author Leon Uris. Essentially a post-Civil War epic and love story, the story is rambling, yet somewhat entertaining. In particular, the dynamics between Amanda Kerr, her industrialist father, and Marine Zachary O'Hara are superb, but other parts of the story are less fulfilling. Jack Garrett is a generally good reader, but his performance here is not up to par. Garrett's pace is excruciatingly slow, his pauses between sentences and chapters way too long. The lackluster delivery, coupled with the book's illogical twists, such as Amanda's inexplicable transformation into a cunning businesswoman and her related decision to abandon Zachary, results in a book that does not measure up to Uris's other works. D.J.S.
(c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 04]