A FAIR MAIDEN

Katya Spivak, the title character of Oates’s novel, is a puzzling protagonist. She may be an innocent teenager from a tough, disadvantaged background, who is lucky to have a summer job at the Jersey Shore as nanny to two small children. She may also be a self-absorbed, calculating vixen who can give Lolita a run for her money as she carries on a bizarre relationship with the silver-haired, well-heeled Marcus Kidder. Truth is, she’s probably both, and Angela Goethals’s interpretation of Katya’s enigmatic personality neatly bundles all of these dimensions into a perfect-pitch performance. Listeners can easily comprehend Katya’s naïve expectations and understandable disappointments; they can also balk at her personal delusions and self-serving machinations. L.X.B. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2011]