THE PEASANT PRINCE

Li Cunxin, one of the world's premier ballet dancers, is known as “Mao's Last Dancer.” Taken from his picture-book memoir, this audiobook tells how he was plucked from the obscurity of peasant life in a remote Chinese village and given the opportunity to see the world. Paul English's accent gives no hint that Li Cunxin is Chinese, and his narration is often overwhelmed by the production’s musical background. The last track tells briefly how life in China has changed since Li's childhood in the 1960s, when Mao Tse-tung's regime made life as unpromising as the life of "a frog in a well." N.E.M. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2009]