All Over Creation

ALL OVER CREATION. Ruth Ozeki. 2003. Read by Anna Fields. 11 tapes. 16 hrs. Blackstone Audiobooks. 0-7861-2442-3. $115.95. Vinyl binder; plot, author notes. SA

What could Lloyd Fuller, a Fundamentalist Idaho potato farmer, have in common with a traveling commune of anti-genetic engineering hippie activists who drive cross-country from protest to protest in a camper modified to run off KFC cooking oil? Award-winning Ozeki's wonder of a novel brings into resolution apparent opposites by virtue of a shared belief in the sacredness of life. At 14, Yumi Fuller runs away after her teacher gets her pregnant and then takes her to an illegal abortionist to avoid getting himself arrested for statutory rape. Twenty-five years later, with her three illegitimate children in tow, she's back home on the farm to take care of and to confront her dying father.

With her rich and sonorous voice, Fields' fully voiced reading evokes the warmth and humor in Ozeki's nuanced paean to the profusion of life and the healing power of loving care. Ozeki respects the complexities of the social and political issues she raises, treats powerfully the familial, and integrates the myriad threads into a satisfying, funny, heart-warming novel. Jacqueline Edwards, Bedford, MA

COPYRIGHT 2004 Kliatt
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group