THE ARTIST OF DISAPPEARANCE

Anita Desai’s THE ARTIST OF DISAPPEARANCE is composed of three beautifully written novellas set in India's recent past, all of which illustrate the chasm between expectations and the reality of life. Narrated alternately by James Langton and Anne Flosnik, the novellas, sadly, do not translate particularly well to audio. Langton is an engaging narrator, but the stories he delivers are particularly meandering—lovely, but without much in the way of plot or character development for the listener to latch onto. The story narrated by Flosnik, with a more linear plot and characters, is the one best suited to audio. But Flosnik lacks much of Langton’s verve, so the story fails to capture the imagination. J.L.K. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2012]