WHEN WASHINGTON WAS IN VOGUE

This fascinating curiosity from the Jazz Age was recently unearthed from the pages of a long defunct magazine. In a series of letters, an African-American man-about-town and aspiring writer tells his best pal how he came to live in the District of Columbia and found love in black high society. He muses on the manners, mores, and race relations of the age. In these musings and in the values that our hero (and his creator) takes for granted reside authentic period details of a world few of us are familiar with. Our hero is a bit stuffy and pretentious, as well as Victorian in his writing style, but of excellent character and capable of keen observation. Tony Penny narrates expressively but with a bit of stiffness. Normally that would be a fault, but here his delivery gives the endearing impression of the letters’ recipient cheerfully reading them aloud to mutual friends gathered in his parlor. His inflections and phrasing are nearly flawless. A perfect combination of text and reader. Y.R. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 04]