SHADE

From its opening sentence--"I know exactly when I died"--the listener is drawn into the life and death of Nina Hardy. George "held the shears to my neck," Nina says, and "opened a moon-like gash on my throat." From this point, time flows into and out of itself like the nearby Boyne River. Nina's shade is the omniscient storyteller, able to enter each character's thoughts, until the listener understands the reasons behind her murder. Narrator Terry Donnelly provides the precise otherworldliness called for by Neil Jordan's lyrical vision. Her delicate handling of Nina's childhood friendships, the pervasive class-consciousness, and the inevitable passions invests Jordan's study of psychological and philosophical connections with a profound awareness of the thinnest separation between the tangible and the ethereal. A worthwhile, challenging listening experience. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE/JULY 05]