YOUR OASIS ON FLAME LAKE

Many aficionados prefer to hear authors, not actors, recite their own work, being willing to endure performance flaws for the sake of getting it from the horse's mouth. No one need indulge novelists Lorna Landvik she is a fine reader indeed. In this selection, she's written about an ordinary, likeable person who learns through trial and error how to live life. The story has a gentle, bucolic atmosphere despite violent, shattering events. It also tastes of political correctness. As narrator, Landvik seems to lisp, but not consistently. It's only a slight irritation, Oasis is set in rural Minnesota, where the 30-some-things and their kids take turns giving eyewitness accounts of their adventures. and she excels at impersonating her characters. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: NOV/DEC 97]