MIDNIGHT CLEAR

Narrator Loren Lester captures the despair of five strangers who spend Christmas Eve alone in this modern-day parable. With bittersweet pathos Lester portrays Lefty, who has lost his apartment, his job, and his visitation rights with his children. Evie, estranged from her grown children, is depicted with a textured characterization of sorrow and desperation as she plans her suicide. Lester's performance of Mary and her son, Jacob, whose husband/father is institutionalized because of a car accident, is especially polished. These lives, and one more, intersect when the youth pastor, Mitch, who struggles with his own crisis of faith, takes the youth group caroling. The story closes with hope, the carol "It Came Upon The Midnight Clear," and a surprising twist. G.D.W. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2008]