STONE WORK

Sala's no-nonsense narration, steady and careful, divulges a special character. Here is a man, compelled by some quirk of personality, to give himself an overwhelming project. The building of a stone wall, with its solid material and heavy labor, becomes the release for his musing. Retired and feeling himself elderly (at the age of 55!), Jerome tries to observe the natural world around him and exorcise his personal ghosts. Sala rumbles forth this stream of consciousness, expounding as a man of skepticism, disappointed by much, scornful of what he cannot understand and arrogant in bewilderment. A real person, likable or not, emerges. S.B.S. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 98]