THE HOCKEY SWEATER AND OTHER STORIES

Roch Carrier's THE HOCKEY SWEATER, set in Quebec of the 1950s and originally written in French, is one of Canada's most beloved children's stories. It manages to give voice to two great divides: between French and English Canada, and between childhood and adulthood. Certainly U.S. readers will find many of the references utterly baffling, but that's not an inherent weakness in the stories. Rather, the flaws are in these dramatized readings, which only occasionally do justice to Carrier's humor. More often they are spoiled by mumbling, ill-chosen voices and too many ambient sound effects. D.B. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 02]