THE COUNTRY DOCTOR

Sarah Orne Jewett is a kind of American George Eliot, with much of the latter's power to evoke rural life. Flo Gibson has a suitably old-fashioned voice. But it does take a bit of listening to fall in with the rapid pace of this emotionally flattened reading--although the lack of passion may be more attributable to Jewett than Gibson. Gibson renders old people believably, even vocally differentiating twins. But the portrayals of younger characters are frustratingly inept. This is very distressing in the heroine, who is passing from toddler to adult in the course of the novel; she sounds old at every age, and tentative when described by her creator as "particularly firm." E.J.M. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPT 92]