POLITICS LOST How American Democracy Was Trivialized by People Who Think You're Stupid

Klein is no actor--his voice is rather strained and thin--but he reads this fascinating history of recent presidential campaigns and their takeover by consultants, pollsters, and marketers with excellent intonation, modulation, and emotional emphasis, and with great energy. It's his material, and he tells it as much as reads it; it flies by. While Klein has a serious reformer's purpose (though he exhorts more than counsels), at times he sounds like a mere petulant critic irritated at not having a better quality of show to review. Music swelling up at the program's end is severely corny. But this remains a compelling, evenhanded, informative book, one every voter should know. W.M. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 06]