WALK LIKE A NATURAL MAN

In a year when the film industry honors two African-American men with its highest honors, Thompson's audiobook confronts us with the broken dreams and minor victories that America's racial policy dictated for African-Americans less than a generation ago. Kevin R. Free moves smoothly through a series of both black and white Southern accents, across generations, even shifting cadence for regional variations of speech. Free's female voices are always interestingly stylized. Free’s inability to carry a tune is the only false note he hits in this story of a blues singer's journey to the silver screen. P.R. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 05]