Sufferings in Africa

Writing just after the War of 1812, an American sea captain recounts his shipwreck and the subsequent enslavement of his crew by East African nomads. Riley's tales of cruel treatment in unknown lands, written in the eloquent language of the day, sold a million copies. Reader Brian Emerson (aka Jonathan Marosz) is monotonous and cool, punctuating sentences by prolonging the last word and dropping his voice. The didactic, well-pronounced delivery at first makes the history seem plausible. But as the story proceeds to melodramatics--survival by drinking camel urine, for example--the listener begins to suspect that the captain's heroics may have impaired the accuracy of his memory while, at the same time, fertilizing his imagination. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine