CADILLAC ORPHEUS

You'll do better with this audiobook if you quickly give up on finding a linear plot. Just sit back and go for a joy ride with narrator Dion Graham in the driver's seat. Graham delivers the stories of three generations of the eccentric Toak family, from Johnson, Florida. Savor the richness of his dialect-smart reading, the way his voice slides over speech rhythms, and his mini-portraits of the large cast of characters. There's a plot there somewhere. As for the characters--some of them, anyway--Teo, the progenitor, is a slimy bail bondsman and slumlord; his son, Freddy, is a drop-out doc and recovering alcoholic-cocaine addict; and Jesmond, Freddy's son, is trying to recover from a life of his father's wild antics. S.W. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2008]