BUTTERFIELD 8

It’s a pleasure to encounter BUTTERFIELD 8 in this new audio version, especially if your most recent memory of it is the image of a young Elizabeth Taylor in high heels and a slip. The 1935 novel is dated but no less entertaining for that, and narrator Gretchen Mol inhabits this time capsule with ease. She deftly distinguishes between male and female voices with just a subtle shift of tone. Making the young women sound distinct, however, is less successful. Mol’s men also sound much alike, and you can’t always hear that one scene has ended and entirely different characters are speaking. Nevertheless, Mol’s pacing and dialogue are effective, and this tale of a beautiful doomed club kid of the Prohibition era is engaging. B.G. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2014]