FOR THE RELIEF OF UNBEARABLE URGES

Nathan Englander's debut collection is full of sophisticated and tightly written stories featuring a cast of Jewish characters. Despite this common thread, there is a great deal of variety in time and place, a feature that's complemented by the use of three narrators for the production. Arthur Morey is particularly well suited to the text, setting the tone of humor and poignancy in the title story, about a man who visits a prostitute when his wife will not make love with him. In "The Twenty-seventh Man," set in a Soviet prison where 27 Jewish writers await execution, Paul Michael renders the accents subtly and without caricature. His handling of the story's final lines is memorably chilling. D.B. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 07]