KIPPS

Kipps is a mostly unexciting rags-to-riches to rags tale, circa 1870 England, whose title character moves from apprenticeship to a luxury he neither fits nor enjoys and then back to relative poverty, courtesy of an unexpected inheritance and, later, an unexpected embezzlement. But it's hard to stay engaged with Kipps and the longish descriptions of his problems and feelings. Reader Sam Kelly, however, deserves mostly favorable attention. He varies difficult dialects well, and differentiates among characters, but is occasionally hard to understand. Still, this will satisfy those willing to stay the sometimes tedious course. T.H. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 98]