LORD OF THE FLIES

Time has made Nobelist Golding's first novel about marooned schoolboys a classic. As such, it deserves more than an abridgment, however deftly accomplished. Nonetheless, you could hardly find a better reading than this one by Emmy winner Pigott-Smith. He possesses a fine sense of the book's structure, characterizations and drama, which he communicates in a slight London accent. The trouble is that at the tape's current length, the story sounds more like an exotic adventure than a morality tale of human bestiality unleashed from civilization's confines. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 99]