LIFE SENTENCES

Linda Emond portrays author Cassandra Fallows with careful enunciation to emphasize the writer's lifetime passion for words. Her performance projects an ironic tone that expresses Fallows's humor and the way her nerves are jangled by publishing and commitment anxieties. Desperate for another bestselling book, Fallows explores the curious case of her elementary school classmate, Calliope Jenkins, who captured public attention by remaining mute during the prison sentence she served for murdering her baby. As Cassandra reexamines her past, Emond's depiction of interviews with estranged friends sets up tension as the protagonist encounters class and racial prejudice, abandonment, and infidelity. In doing so, she looks at truth and deception in terms of both the memoir genre and her own life. S.W. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2009]