GRANT

This intriguing work presents the character of Grant as seen through the eyes of Nicholas Trist and Sylvanus Cadwallader and uses a structure that is reminiscent of the movie Citizen Kane. Trist and Cadwallader are both reporters, with Trist, a one-armed veteran working for a French publication, who takes the lead as he interacts with a number of prominent people in the years 1880-1885. George Guidall's performance of this vast montage is splendid. His performances of the soft-spoken Grant, the gruff Sherman, and that erudite snob Henry Adams (to name a few) are superb. The narrative is as adroitly presented, but it is the characters in this production who stand out. The question of how true the details of this enticing work are one may wish to leave to the historians, for Guidall's performance makes it seem as though one is there. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 01]