THE AWAKENING

Haunting music introduces Chopin's novella, written in 1899, which Liza Ross narrates with appropriate grace and charm. Considered shocking and vulgar in its time, the story revolves around Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother who rejects her husband and children to indulge in an adulterous affair with the son of a friend. Ross offers a whispery, intimate portrait of a woman who eschews the company of other women and defies social conventions. Ross's soft Southern lilt sweetly conveys Edna's seeming compliance to the norms of society but subtly reveals the steel beneath her velvet tones. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2015]