WATERLAND

Tom Crick, narrator of this fictional autobiography, has just been sacked from a thirty-year teaching career. Waterland, his final lecture to a class of prep school boys, covers his own history, as well as that of the Fens of England. Christian Rodska's portrayal of Crick captures the fine nuances of British irony, bitterness and humor so richly layered throughout the story. His accounts of empire-building are no less fascinating than the entire cassette devoted to the reproductive lives of European eels, and their role in the reproductive lives of certain of the book's characters. Rodska washes the story with an overwhelming sense of melancholy, entirely fitting to Swift's plot. R.P.L. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 98]