ALL HE EVER WANTED

Anita Shreve returns to New England for another look into the lives of men and women in the early twentieth century. Nicholas Van Tassel is writing his memoir of a life centered around Etna Bliss, a woman whose love remained elusive even after their marriage many years earlier. Dennis Boutsikaris is masterful as the voice of Professor Van Tassel, portraying the character as he is: insecure, arrogant, and blindly devoted all at once. Like the heroine in Shreve's Fortune's Rocks, Etna is a woman oppressed by the times in which she lives; these restrictions inevitably lead to conflict and bewilderment. Shreve writes with masterful description and is capable of taking the listener back in time. L.B.F. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 03]