A CASE TO ANSWER

When she is widowed for the second time, Charlotte Frost's home is sold by her late husband's cash-poor children. She is forced to leave the life she knows and move into a house with little personality. Feeling displaced and insignificant, she begins to lose herself. She has moments when she believes she is invisible But when her surly teenaged step-granddaughter comes to live with her, life veers sharply into uncharted territory. Narrator Celia Montague switches from weeping to simple narration, from young woman to old man, with practiced ease. Yorke handles the minutiae of daily existence with meticulous care, and Celia Montague's impressive performance provides just the right flourish for this piece of literary scrimshaw. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 01]