Cotton.

COTTON. Christopher Wilson. 2005. Read by Kevin R. Free. 9 cds. 11 hrs. Recorded Books. 1-4193-6185-6. $119.75. Vinyl; plot notes. A

Lee Cotton is born to a light-skinned African American woman, courtesy of a one-night fling in New Orleans with an Icelandic fisherman never heard from again. Lee is blond and blue-eyed, but still "one drop black" in Eureka, Mississippi in the 1950s. Never accepted by either community and brutally beaten by a racist when his dalliance with his daughter is discovered, Lee moves to the Midwest and passes for white. Then, it's on to a stint in the army when, in a freak automobile accident, Lee loses his masculine identity and is "redesigned" as a female. What the novel lacks in realism it makes up for in humor and ingenious prose. The delta lilt is as thick as swamp air. As a woman, Lee journeys to San Francisco and becomes the lover of a radical, feminist lesbian.

Narrator Free is brilliant in this crazy romp through the various liberation movements of the '60s and '70s, offering dialect and intonation that are as undefined as the character. A zany, funny story. Some sexually explicit language and scenes. Nancy Crowder Chaplin, Libn., VCCW, Goochland, VA

A--Recommended for advanced students and adults. This code will help librarians and teachers working in high schools where there are honors and advanced placement