THE BURMA ROAD

From the fall of Burma to the Japanese in 1942 until the end of the war, the Allies strove to keep China supplied with matériel from India--by air over "the Hump," and overland via the Burma Road, which stretched 700 miles to the Chinese city of Kunming. Donovan Webster's account of American derring-do in this theater is fast-paced and engaging, the work of a first-rate storyteller. His throaty reading, however, is too rushed, as though he were trying to pack as many words as possible into this drastically condensed recording. It's still dramatic and entertaining, but it feels like only a half a story, one that might have been called ABRIDGED ON THE RIVER KWAI. D.B. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 04]