LINDA MCCARTNEY

In his gossipy book-length eulogy, rock columnist and longtime friend Fields presents Paul McCartney's late wife as a strong, sensitive woman who took heaps of abuse for daring to marry the world's most eligible bachelor. Over the years she bore Paul's children, pulled him out of a post-Beatles depression, toured with the band Wings, and promoted animal rights and vegetarianism. Allan Smithee sounds younger than the author, but otherwise he does a decent job of bringing Linda to life (she died in 1998). He recreates the interviews and remembered conversations on which the text relies without trying to imitate Paul, who is a secondary figure here. Fields's moods emerge--adoring, petulant, nostalgic--as does his desire for the listener to really know Linda. And at tape's end, you feel you do. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/ JAN 02]