A PLACE CALLED SWEET SHRUB

What a waste of a narrator's talent! C.J. Critt always reads slowly, giving the listener time to savor the language. If the writing is good, the story becomes more satisfying to hear than to read. But not even Critt can redeem a banal love story like this one. Although the issues it raises are important--relations between black sharecroppers and white landowners--its treatment of them is too superficial to be significant. J.C. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 96]