Dolores Claiborne

Throughout a single, long night in the police chief's office, Dolores Claiborne relates events leading to her murder of her husband and the recent suspicious death of her wealthy employer. The nine-hour, unrelieved monologue poses a special challenge to the reader/performer. Actress Frances Sternhagen portrays the sharp-tongued, foul-mouthed Dolores with expressive vigor but with limited emotional range and little variation in tempo. Sternhagen's Downeast accent is convincing, although mispronunciations of "quahog" and "Machias" are annoying. Very occasional sound effects are puzzling and interrupt, rather than enhance, the storytelling. Nevertheless, King fans doubtless will enjoy hearing Dolores relate her complex and disturbing tale. D.M.L. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Starred review from October 27, 2008
King’s classic tale of murder and suspicion on Little Tall Island is certainly one of his finest to date, featuring one his most complex and compelling characters ever. With her smalltown tone and pitch perfect dialect, Frances Sternhagen delivers a remarkable reading that is at once intimate yet extroverted. Sternhagen’s Claiborne is an everyday woman who has had it with her everyday life. With an unrelenting delivery that only gets better as the story moves forward, Sternhagen speaks from the heart and never sounds forced or manufactured. She also makes all the surrounding characters (from Dolores’s damaged daughter to her steely boss and a suspicious detective) completely well-rounded and realistic. Sternhagen captures the very essence of what can turn a woman’s heart to hate and lets her audience feel it in their bones. Recorded in 1992 (three years before the Kathy Bates motion picture), this is the recording’s first release on CD. A Signet paperback.