Higher

The U.S. has always been fixated on being the best, whether that means being the fastest, the most technologically advanced, or, in this case, the highest. Bascomb details the stunning competition between Walter Chrysler and George Ohrstrom (of the Empire State Corporation) in the late 1920s to build the highest man-made structure in the world. Narrator Richard M. Davidson does an admirable job with the story, but his staccato delivery does more to distract than to illuminate. Davidson has a fine, rich voice, and he is easy to follow, but his attempts at emphasis are better suited for a "he-man" murder mystery than an elegant race to the sky. The book is certainly worth a listen; Davidson could have been a bit smoother. R.I.G. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine