Andrews's tale of how she came to write the Sally Hemings miniseries engages the listener on three levels: as a testimony to the power of perseverance; a symbol of African-Americans' fight to get their stories told; and a fascinating glimpse into a writer's experiences in Hollywood. Andrews began as an actress, appearing on Roots
and in a landmark interracial romance story line on One Life to Live. But when the soap received overwhelming hate mail, she was written out of the script. Depressed and broke, Andrews turned to writing; she penned a TV movie about the slave who had a long-term affair with Thomas Jefferson. Producers expressed interest, but the networks wouldn't touch the controversial subject, and for 15 years the project languished. When DNA evidence proved that Jefferson fathered Hemings's children, CBS leaped to produce Andrews's screenplay as a four-hour miniseries. But more travails followed: Andrews nearly died of pneumonia while working to get her draft in on time and executives wanted to rewrite key scenes. Andrews reads with passion and intensity, although she pauses slightly after every few words. The production quality isn't top-notch: mispronunciations, false starts and lip smacks are heard. The CD version also suffers from a major drawback: each disc has only three tracks, so if listeners miss a sentence, they might have to go back 20 minutes to begin again. (May)
