CALIFORNIA CHARACTERS An Array of Amazing People

Charles Hillinger gives us a compendium of the best of 6,000 stories he wrote for the L.A. TIMES, all portraits of colorful people ranging from chimney sweeps to people dreaming up surnames to place them last in the phone directory. Dennis McKee's pleasant voice gives entertaining variations and accents to the California characters, and becomes beautifully appropriate for a couple of poems. The breaks from one short to another are not as obvious in audio as in the printed form, creating confusion, when, for example, one is hearing about a man who collects bird eggs, and suddenly one is hearing a recipe for soap. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/ JAN 02]