THE DRESSMAKER

English actor and audiobook reader Jacqueline King performs this thickly British story with the skill necessary to enliven five distinct characters and stitch them all together through the lucid prose of the novel’s guiding narrator. In that the story is beautifully constructed to begin with, the listener is in for a fine artistic experience. The setting is Liverpool, 1944. The war pressures naïve teenaged Rita to dream beyond the fortified shores of her own country. The town is full of Yanks who come from the land of Hollywood. Rita claims one for herself, but her two aunts, who have raised her, see more and less in him than Rita suspects. The ending is inspired and in itself gives reason why this book was runner-up for the Booker Prize. The recording quality is hissy (muffled with Dolby), but it strangely adds to the atmosphere if one knows how radios used to sound during those dark, uncertain days. P.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 02]