THAT OLD ACE IN THE HOLE

Arliss Howard serves up a brilliant performance of Proulx’s new novel about the sad, floundering, but earnest-to-a-fault Bob Dollar. Landing his first real job, Dollar sets off on an unlikely hero’s journey, quietly scouting the Texas Panhandle for land that his employer, Global Pork Rind, plans to use for corporate hog farming. In a pitch-perfect reading, Howard narrates Dollar’s encounters with landscape, history, and a slew of eccentric characters, each of whom is brought richly to life as Howard shifts seamlessly from one distinctive voice to another. The region itself is an engaging character, and Proulx’s inventiveness with language is delicious. The story, although admittedly polemical, is entertaining, absorbing, and ultimately satisfying. As read by Howard, it is all that and more. E.S. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 03]