MODEL BEHAVIOR

Richard Cox rises to the challenges of Jay McInerney's latest work of fiction. The brief novel is made up of text blocks ranging from a single sentence to a couple of pages, each with its own subhead and varying points of view. But what could have been disorienting for the listener somehow isn't, thanks to Cox's changes of intonation and voices that define the characters without overacting. The novel's antihero, celebrity-tracking magazine writer Connor McKnight, is a mix of New York cool and hopeless ennui. Cox is totally convincing in his portrayal of the latter trait, and, although his cool is occasionally a bit too "kewl," he would make an ideal reader for any McInerney novel. D.B. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 99]