BLACK HAWK DOWN

Listening to Joe Morton read Bowden's nonfiction study of war is a bit like sitting through Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. Your reaction is so powerful that you tend to forget the quality of the work itself. It's a testament to Morton's abilities as a reader that he never makes himself more important than Bowden's story, never draws attention to himself, yet he still manages to leave a profound imprint on the finished work. In the midst of Bowden's story, a study of the brutal battle in Mogadishu, Somalia, which resulted in the downing of two Black Hawk helicopters and the deaths of a score of U.S. Army Rangers, Morton remains fully in control. Bowden's book portrays a situation that went from neutral to bad, then from bad to infinitely worse, in a matter of hours. Yet while taking us on a trip through the minds of individual men facing the horrors of modern combat, Morton stays on task. Some of those minds are nearly Zen-like in their calmness. Others are crazed in panic. All, in one way or another, exhibit the kind of turmoil that accompanies the imminent possibility of sudden death. Yet Morton never oversells the moment. He never overstates the danger. He doesn't have to. It's all in Bowden's words, which Morton delivers perfectly. D.A.W. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 99]