FORTUNE SMILES Stories

Don't let the title fool you: Darkness lingers in the stories in FORTUNE SMILES. Even the humor, which abounds, is dark and somewhat brooding. Each of the six performers brings an individual torch to illuminate the stories in unique ways, but leading the pack are Jonathan McClain and Cassandra Campbell. McClain opens the collection with "Nirvana," relating the protagonist's pain as he tends to his paralyzed wife in a performance both loving and resigned. Campbell walks us through the messy aftermath of a wife's double mastectomy in "Interesting Facts"; she is the only female narrator, but she pulls no punches in relating the pathos of the story. All the narrators are fine performers who do great justice to Johnson's painful, memorable stories. N.J.B. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2015]