A FINE WHITE DUST

The first-person young adult novel demands a reader who can convincingly deliver narrative in a creditable teenaged voice. In A FINE WHITE DUST, Jeff Woodman does an admirable job of speaking to the listener through the voice of 13-year-old Peter Cassidy. In a Southern drawl, Woodman relates the story of the summer Peter was "saved" by the Preacher Man, who claimed to have come to town to rescue souls. Instead he worked his hypnotic holy magic on Peter, ensnaring him in a trap of counterfeit religious lust. A residue of pious intensity sings in Woodman's voice as Peter remembers his time with the Preacher, trying to create meaning from it, for his reader and for himself. T.B. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 99]