TWO KINDS OF WONDERFUL

Family interaction and personal identity are at the core of Dewar's novel. Roz left her family 10 years earlier and is still uncomfortable facing them at her ex-husband's mother funeral. Roz spends the book ruminating about the events that led up to her leaving, what happened afterward, and how she managed to have a relationship with her children. Her children reflect on the same. In low tones and subtle intonations Vivien Heilbron sorts out the timeline that shifts from present to past. Curt, fragmented sentences and British slang flow without a hitch, but when she reads asides and internal thoughts, her voice becomes very difficult to hear. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 02]