OSCAR AND LUCINDA

This Booker Prize-winning novel set in Australia is full of romantic images and exotic scenes as two independent spirits collide, with each other and with nineteenth-century moralism. In the role of Oscar, the anxious minister and addicted gambler, Ralph Fiennes is a marvel. However, his astute sense of this character, whom he also plays in the current movie, seems to overshadow the other roles an audiobook narrator must take. He's fluent and compelling when Oscar is "onstage" but remains aloof from the rest of the narrative. However, the inventiveness of the plot and Fiennes's charisma prevail and keep listeners tuned to the story. R.F.W. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB 98]