CLASSIC AMERICAN SHORT STORIES, VOL. I

This splendid collection could hardly be bettered. The stories, almost all from the first half of the twentieth century, are indeed classics, but not overexposed. Most are fictions both of character and of place, and as the places include New Hampshire, New York City, the West, the Midwest, and the Deep South, a lot is required of the reader. Charlton Griffin is dazzlingly good, with regional accents, with the change in timbre from a boy's voice to a woman's and a man's, and most of all with his nuanced understanding of how to deliver the narrative from writer to reader without getting himself in the way. Kudos to all involved in this terrific production, and let's hope for many volumes to come. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 02]