HOWARD HUGHES The Untold Story

If all you know about Hughes is that he was a rich, reclusive kook, this well-researched and read (if long) biography is for you. The young Hughes was, in fact, a talented aeronautical engineer and pilot who took over TWA, a movie producer who ran RKO, and such a prodigious womanizer that you wonder how he had time for the other stuff. As he aged, HRH became increasingly paranoid, and today would be diagnosed as obsessive-compulsive. A long text like this requires a voice that wears well, pronounces clearly, gets all the names right, and makes you believe it's all true. Michael Prichard, who has read long bios of P.T. Barnum and Jackie Robinson, meets all these tests. His tone is neutral and his pace unhurried. If Hughes's dalliances with a galaxy of Hollywood starlets get repetitious, it's not Prichard's fault. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 01]