STORIES

Melissa Hughes is a truly gifted actor who masters the varied and challenging accents found in Cather's bleak frontier stories. The piteous drunken accents of a Norwegian farmer, the weary tones of a disenchanted Plains lawyer, and the delicious awe of a city girl dazzled by the lonely splendor of Nebraska's horizonless plateau are all drawn with exquisite exactness by this talented actor. However, Cather's beautiful narrative passages are presented in a hurried and breathless fashion, almost as if Hughes is rushing through the prose to pounce upon the next character's dialect. However, in the last and longest story of the collection, "Eric Hermannson's Soul," Cather's ability to trace human longing and the reader's sensitivity coalesce to create a memorable audio portrait. T.M. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 97]