I'LL TAKE YOU THERE

Reader Kate Fleming could make a telephone directory seem compelling, but, sad to say, she doesn't have a whole lot to work with in this newest effort from the usually reliable Joyce Carol Oates. Once again Oates visits the angst of a young woman, this one enrolled at Syracuse University in the early '60s, but her unnamed, introspective protagonist just doesn't arouse much interest or sympathy. The appropriately dramatic Fleming, on the other hand, is marvelous, especially with a sorority's British housemother and the heroine's black lover. Let's hope she gets a book more worth her listeners' time, and her own, next time. T.H. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 03]