SURVIVE Stories of Castaways and Cannibals

Listeners may be either titillated or turned off by this subject; actually it is not part of some selections and features marginally in others. The best excerpts tell of brave souls enduring extended hardships. Colleen Delaney becomes a young member of the Donner party; Erik Synnestvedt gives Steven Callahan's spiritual account of 76 days lost at sea reverential treatment, and the rugby players marooned in the Andes are recalled with gripping South American accents. You shiver with Shackleton's support team in Antarctica and chuckle at Twain's political spoof, "Cannibalism in the Cars." Other readings range from sensitive to monotonous. Like other titles in the Adrenaline series, this is a mixed bag, but the individual cassettes have titles, so you can pick and choose. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 02/ JAN 03]