FOREGONE

Narrator Stephen Mendel is quite capable of a range of voices and accents, so his decision not to use them in narrating Russell Banks's kaleidoscopic novel is clearly a strategic choice. Leo Fife, the novel's protagonist and sometimes voice, may be confabulating, or he may be misremembering. As he is dying, the narrative shifts subtly between what he is saying and thinking, and what he is hearing from the people around him. Mendel keeps us just enough off balance that we can share the doubts of Fife's wife and the film crew trying to interview him. Is Fife's story the truth? Is the truth even possible? Mendel's performance emphasizes the same questions the novel asks. D.M.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2021]