BRIGHT SHINY MORNING

Frey's brush strokes paint a captivating portrait of contemporary Los Angeles with bold splashes of the city's high-energy evolution from past to present. In a dazzling tour de force, BRIGHT SHINY MORNING illuminates the joys, horrors, and fortunes found and lost that comprise the city's characters (or victims) and its powerful history. Ben Foster expertly captures the author’s compelling style with outstanding pacing—poignant pauses, a crescendo of shouts and whispers, silences—as well as humor and sarcasm. Foster grasps the author's vision of brutal realism against an evolving cultural backdrop. Frey's emotional portraits of starkly contrasted personalities and snapshots of diverse circumstance are complemented by Foster's insightful delivery. Foster seizes Frey's poetic documentary with its gritty dialogue and produces an exhilarating, unforgettable experience. A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 08]