FREDDY AND FREDERICKA

Forget the histories! Forget Churchill's vast LIFE OF MARLBOROUGH! This is the definitive study of the thousand-year history of the English monarchy, and it's definitive reading. Yes, it is a comedy! Helprin has discovered that life is really just play made to look like high seriousness. Or is it all high seriousness made to look like play? We are never quite sure. Whatever it is, Robert Ian Mackenzie has caught it. His slow, measured narration; thick, almost Scottish, accent; richly developed vocal characterizations; and sheer delight in the author's wordplay all raise to the breaking point the high serious bubble the novel is intended to burst. It helps that Mackenzie is reading one of the finest satiric novels since Swift, but this reader could move us reading a phonebook. Treat yourself! P.E.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/ MAY 06]