Late Essays

Steven Crossley is a clear and confident narrator who helps guide his listener through a wordy and dense set of literary essays by the Nobel Prize-winning South African writer Coetzee. Crossley varies his emphasis to underscore the more interesting moments in the lives of such luminaries as Daniel Defoe, Samuel Beckett, and Irene Nemirovsky, among many others. Crossley has the crisp and businesslike delivery of an English professor. He becomes more lively in the chapters about the writers' personal lives, many of which include family complications or sexual exploits. This is a title for those who are fans of behind-the-scenes examinations of historical figures. M.R. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine