THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin

Justine Eyre’s narration of Russian President Putin’s rise to power is competent. As related by Gessen, a Soviet-born reporter who lives in Moscow, Putin was a lower-level KGB officer who was picked at random to be Boris Yeltsin’s president. It’s no surprise the former spymaster is a thug. Gessen’s research is thorough, giving great insights into Putin. Eyre begins slowly, even having trouble with Russian words at first. While she affects a decent Russian accent for dialogue, she gives anglicized pronunciation to some Russian words or place names, an inconsistency that is distracting. Throughout the course of her performance she seems to become more comfortable, but, overall, one wonders if someone else would have been a better match for this work. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2012]