Haussmann, or the Distinction.

HAUSSMANN, OR THE DISTINCTION. Paul LaFarge. 2001/2003. Read by Eric Bauersfeld. 9 tapes. 11.5 hrs. Blackstone Audiobooks. 0-7861-2591-8. $62.95. Vinyl; content, author notes. A

Paris is what it is today because of the work of 1853-1869 city architect Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann. La Farge, in a softly unfocused novel, tells how Haussmann demolished dark tenements, churches, and at least one convent, built the sewers made famous by his contemporary Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, constructed an aqueduct to fight the 1865 cholera epidemic (rumors at the time claimed the aqueduct brought in the disease), rerouted a river, and plotted unsuccessfully to establish a cemetery distant from the city to reduce pollution from the city's dead. He did it all with an economic sleight-of-hand even his most determined enemies could not fathom. Other characters, fleshed out from scant records, are vividly portrayed: Madeleine, Haussmann's rags-to-riches mistress, de Fance, her adopted "father," a demolition man who abetted the city's deconstruction and reconstruction while accumulating vast wealth, and a couple of strong-arm men who do Haussmann's dirty work. La Farge peers into the souls of his characters and the Parisians in general, dropping pearls of philosophy to explain the tenor of their lives. Bauersfeld narrates with a mellow old man's voice tuned to the emotional lives of his quirky characters. Poetical French personal and place names trip smoothly from his tongue. Help patrons get past the ill-conceived title. Edna Boardman, Bismarck, ND