Misadventures in 213(bkpk, Abridged

Originally published serially in trendy West Coast Detour magazine, Hensley's group portrait of LA wanna-bes in action is a boisterous youth culture soap opera in its audio incarnation. The producers have opted for the always risky ""multi-cast"" format here, in which various readers (TV starlets all, in this case) dramatize roles to augment the author's central narration. The splicing and cutting required makes for a disjointed flow, but the sum effect is gamely spirited (listeners will get the sense that the readers are genuinely having fun). Hero Craig Clybourn, a struggling screenwriter and self-chastising gay man, witnesses firsthand the glamorous adventures of his old friend Dandy Rio, sitcom star of That's Just Dandy. Action unfolds episodically--and outrageously--often taking the form of telephone conversations between characters. The humor is over-the-top and clever in places but too often stretched painfully thin, sounding like an anorexic 1990s version of Armistead Maupin's more robust Tales of the City. Hensley clearly knows his audience, and because he plays to them shamelessly, they will still get a kick out of this tape. Based on the 1998 Morrow/Weisbach hardcover. (Oct.)