IN SUNLIGHT AND IN SHADOW

Sean Runnette’s performance highlights the lyricism of Helprin's story of love at first sight. Runnette breathes an audible tone of wistfulness into the romance between Harry, a paratrooper who has returned to New York City after WWII, and Catherine, a singer and heiress whom he instantly falls in love with when he first sees her on the Staten Island Ferry. The listening experience created by Runnette resonates with the intensity of Helprin's descriptive power. The novel reflects the passion and longing of the characters amid the beauty of the city's shifting settings, dreamlike in light and in shadow at the dawn of the modern age. Runnette builds the tension when Catherine severs her longstanding engagement, an act that leads to vengeful retaliation. A.W. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2012]