REMEMBERING BLUE

In a melodramatic and slow-moving novel, Fowler introduces the listener to Mattie Blue, her husband, Nick, and her Greek-American in-laws. Fowler's drawl and slow pace are appropriate for a story set along Florida's Gulf Coast. Her performance, however, fails to maintain the momentum needed to make this story move along. Instead, the first two tapes drag painfully before dropping Mattie into her strange new life among the gregarious Blues. Once there, the author becomes much more comfortable with her heroine, and the story picks up speed, only to end exactly where the disappointed reader might expect--at a predictable, clichéd ending. H.L.S. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 00]