ONCE UPON THE RIVER LOVE

Three young men in a Siberian village learn about life and love and the West by watching a Jean Paul Belmondo film, which plays over and over in the village cinema during one long, deep winter. Makine's prose is dense, studded with images: "Under the resonant, trembling stars, the dark sky draws us into its abyss, crammed with constellations. . . " The book is a mesmerizing weave of memory, description and young men's fantasies, which presents its challenges to the reader. Geoffrey Howard reads as one would read an epic poem. His delivery is measured, driving, as unrelenting as the Siberian snow. It demands concentration, but as the listener surrenders to the story, the world of the three young dreamers who symbolically voyage upon the River Love becomes our world, too. L.R.S. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 99]