BECH AT BAY AND BEFORE

Henry Bech, the fictional subject of several Updike books, is a New York Jewish novelist -- or, more accurately, a satire of New York Jewish novelists. His life is the author's sometimes bitter joke on literary celebrity. Random House here presents an anthology of Bech stories, beginning with Henry's official visit to the Soviet Union in the '60's and ending with his 1999 Nobel Prize speech. Normally an excellent actor, Ron Rifkin give only a so-so performance here. His vocal personality is inappropriately fey and humorless. He stumbles over unfamiliar words and he doesn't connect with the material until he is more than halfway through it. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 99]