Excellent Good Fair Poor : AUDIOCASSETTES

“Big Blonde and Other Stories.” Listen for Pleasure. Fans of witty and cynical writer/poet Dorothy Parker will appreciate this well-rendered, familiarly throaty reading by Lauren Bacall of five short stories. They’re perilously downbeat but cogent and sharply etched portraits of Prohibition-era people from all strata of New York society. Blowzy, buxom Hazel, the “Big Blonde” who boozily moves from man to man, is especially poignant. Parker draws her characters with stunningly authentic dialogue and masterful descriptions.