BRIGID'S CHARGE

Drawing from family history, Lamb tells of an extraordinary woman who is caught in a period of transition when medicine moved from the province of women to the realm of "educated" men. Cindy Hollenberg narrates smoothly and evenly, handling with ease the seventeenth-century mannerisms of Quaker speech. Her use of accent for the Irish servant is a bit spotty, but otherwise her characters remain consistent and true. The author joins with Hollenberg for some passages of choral reading related to Old Religion ritual and also is the voice of one particular ancestor in some portions of the book. The result is not overwhelming but does not detract. The sprinkling of chant and sacred song adds a sense of the characters' reality. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/JAN 01]