BITTERSWEET

Best known for her popular Anna Pigeon mystery series, Barr wrote this "neo-Gothic lesbian Western" (her description) in 1984. In the 1880s, Sarah and Imogene leave rural Pennsylvania to avoid scandal and end up running a wagon stop in the Nevada desert. The frontier West and the women's relationship develop simultaneously amid blowing dust and open skies. Fresh from her tour de force reading of GONE WITH THE WIND, Linda Stephens again manages a long story with a variety of characters running the gamut from charitable to downright mean. She gives words lives of their own and announces each chapter as if it were the dawn of a new day. The scenes of Imogene disguised as a man are skillfully handled by both author and reader. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/ JAN 02]