LOSING IT

Charlie and Judy Thornton are a happily married couple going through middle-age crises but not willing to admit it. Then Charlie, feeling bored, goes to the local market and is helped by Stacey, a three-hundred-pound 20-year-old, and he falls in love. Or is it lust? This story is told from each character's perspective, and Miriam Margolyes creates suitable voices for each, matching emotion, education, and age with subtle intonation. Margolyes never errs in her characterizations of Charlie as he leaves the security of wife and family, of Judy as she copes with losing Charlie, and of Stacey, as she gains a live-in lover. But does each character get what he or she really wants? Asher's novel plays out the adage: Be careful what you wish for. M.B.K.
(c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 04]