I MARRIED A COMMUNIST

Confidences shared by a contemporary hermit and his aging English teacher paint the complex picture of the teacher's brother, a radio star destroyed in the Red Scare. Ron Silver's idiosyncratic New York delivery is perfect for the characters. This is a fully developed performance calculated to seem wonderfully casual and spontaneous. Technically, the recording is less polished than most: The tape preserves every intake of breath and plenty of "mouth noise." And it's too often obvious when a new recording session begins--pitch and volume change so drastically. All of this may have been calculated to match Silver's style, but it comes off as technical sloppiness. Nevertheless, this is a good performance of a book that seems to have been written to be read aloud. S.P. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 99]