FOR LIBERTY AND GLORY Washington, Layfayette, and Their Revolutions

The story told here is both sweeping and complex. James Gaines traces the intertwined histories of the American and French Revolutions by examining the lives and adventures of friends and colleagues George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette. Each man offers a narrator multiple challenges: Washington kept to a carefully maintained public face. Lafayette moved between languages and continents. Once the narrative is well underway, Norman Dietz does a respectable job. He moves smoothly between languages and manages to evoke different voices, even those reading letters from third parties. At the beginning, however, Dietz's pace is so slow that it's distracting. It doesn't match the content of the history he's recounting and flattens its emotional impact. G.T.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2008]