TOBACCO ROAD

Caldwell’s fondness for bawdy humor has sometimes been compared to the writings of Rabelais. In this Depression-era novel the comic earthiness involves a family coping with the frustrations of it’s poverty and sexual urges. In the many dialogue scenes of TOBACCO ROAD, John MacDonald confines his use of a broad backwoods accent to the patriarch, Jeeter Lester, a reading strategy that downplays some of the novel’s exaggeration. On audio, such moderation offsets, rather than overplays, the wildness of the plot. Caldwell’s book is, thus, well served by this classy performance, which manages to highlight the realism amid the rambunctiousness. G.H. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 96]