THE SEA WOLF

Narrator Will Patton mars an otherwise excellent performance by consistently mispronouncing "forecastle," yet it's a minor flaw. He reads like a young man who has been shaken by a profound life experience that was more horrible than he had imagined. It's as if he were shell-shocked, able to speak precisely but slowly, contemplating each word and being vaguely appalled by it. He does well with each character, from the cockney low-life cook to the implacable sealer captain, the unforgettable Wolf Larsen. The classic story involves a pampered man in his 30's suddenly forced into the rough-hewn life of a turn-of-the-century sailor, so the performance fits. D.W. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 00]