A PLACE IN THE COUNTRY

Suzanne Toren upholds her reputation for excellent readings with the odyssey of a poor city child who dreams of open rural land and gets it in spades when, many years later, she buys a former inn in upstate New York. A will of steel is necessary, and one hears it in the first-person narrative. Cunningham’s detemination is tempered by a sense of humor; she plants vegetables while the deer and woodchucks who will eat them watch. Satellite characters are seen through the author’s eyes, but our ears will especially remember “Grandma Etka from Minsk” and the aristocratic British neighbors. Less well defined are Cunningham’s ex-husband and two adopted children, who are outshone by details of her bucolic haven. An interview with the author is included. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 01]