BEING THERE

Dustin Hoffman's performance of this spare and provocative novel is a revelation. The story is surreal (though certainly not difficult and certainly highly amusing); to deliver it, what is needed is not pacing or vocal pyrotechnics but a thorough, thoughtful understanding of the text and the restraint to perform only exactly what is there. These Hoffman delivers, and he makes it look easy. Chance, renamed Chauncy Gardener by mistake, is not Rainman, but he is an otherworldly innocent on whom all around him project what they think they are seeing, based on his looks, his clothes, and his surroundings. Hoffman's Russian and French bigwigs are spot-on and hilarious, but most of all, his Chance, an impossible character, is not only believable but utterly convincing. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2013 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2012]