REFUGE

Right-brained or left-brained? The answer decides how one will react to Terry Tempest Williams's offering. Her work is decidedly right-brained, creative, spiritual, ethereal. Williams's journal of her mother's cancer is told through the lens of her own work as a naturalist studying birds in her native Utah. She reads with sensual, almost erotic tones, which convey her spiritual imagery. The heavily abridged text contains an inordinate proportion of cello music. The music fits, however, allowing the listener time to consider the author's metaphors. Left-brained, calculative individuals will have difficulty concentrating on this. Right-brained, abstract thinkers will appreciate this beautiful offering more readily. D.W.K. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 94]