Audio

Award-winning journalist Caroline Knapp turned her investigative talents inward with her best-selling autobiography “Drinking: A Love Story” (Bantam Doubleday Dell, abridged, four cassettes, five hours, $21.95, read by the author).

She startles us with her honesty in this achingly personal tale of obsession, destructive relationships and profound cracks in a family’s aloof facade. Not that this is a roll in the psychic mud: Knapp writes with perception and humor, chronicling her many years as a functioning alcoholic and conveying the inner strength she summoned when it was clear that her romance with the bottle was over.

Matching her compelling revelations is a surprisingly expressive narrative style. Knapp’s voice is somewhat deep, a little earthy with a rich timbre. Her timing is always on the mark, emphasizing her pain or capturing the black humor in a self-deprecating joke. And though this treatment is abridged, so little has been excised that the listener misses practically none of the story.

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Kathryn Harrison’s obsession wasn’t booze but, rather, her father, a minister who was absent during her childhood. Reunited when she was 20, they embarked on a long and stormy incestuous love affair that she details poignantly and fascinatingly in “The Kiss” (Soundelux Audio, unabridged, four cassettes, four hours and 24 minutes, $21.95, read by the author).

Harrison’s language is haunting. Though she reveals much, we are spared the more lurid details. Smart move: Hearing them read aloud likely would have made listeners squirm.

As it is, Harrison may not have been the best choice to read her provocative prose. She is a bit too timid and singsong, although sometimes she comes to life, mostly while reading emotional or angry passages.

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Sammy “The Bull” Gravano is a Mafia hit man turned FBI ratster. Relying on lengthy interviews, author Peter Maas depicted the gangster’s colorful past, his healthy ego and his hatred for his former boss and current prison inmate, John Gotti, the Dapper Don. “Underboss” (Recorded Books, unabridged, nine cassettes, 12 hours and 45 minutes, $17.50 to rent, $80 to buy, read by Richard M. Davidson) is one biography that takes the romance right out of the Mafia.

Maas’ writing reflects Gravano’s speech patterns and interesting use of grammar, but his tough urban voice is not captured by the narrator. Davidson has a commanding style and professional demeanor that are nearly impeccable on a technical level. Had he vocally conjured the Mafioso’s Brooklyn neighborhood, he might have accentuated Gravano’s relationship to Cosa Nostra. (For information on this audio book, call [800] 638-1304.)

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Considered a “fallen woman” in the early ‘50s, Ingrid Bergman simply was a gal ahead of her time. In “Notorious: The Life of Ingrid Bergman” (Blackstone Audiobooks, unabridged, 13 cassettes, 19 hours and 30 minutes, $14.95 to rent, $85.95 to buy, read by C.M. Herbert), best-selling biographer Donald Spoto gives us a historical context for actions now considered commonplace.

Spoto’s style is inviting as always. He reveals Bergman, warts and all, maintaining our interest not with sensationalism but simply with the facts. A Swedish native with a photogenic face and broad talents that earned her three Academy Awards, Bergman was denounced loudly for the child she bore out of wedlock with director Roberto Rossellini. Spoto--who knew her and had unprecedented access to her friends, relatives and personal papers--paints a vivid picture of the actress, the press and the political climate before, during and after her scandalous liaison.

This is an easy listen, as Spoto’s accessible writing is matched by reader Herbert’s voice and energetic manner. Herbert shows a flair for the theatrical: Whenever Spoto quotes lines from Bergman’s films or plays, Herbert goes after them with dramatic intensity. (For information on this audio book, call [800] 729-2665.)

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Rochelle O’Gorman Flynn reviews audio books every other week. Next week: Dick Lochte on mysteries.