Specimen Days.

SPECIMEN DAYS. Michael Cunningham. 2005. Read by Alan Cumming. 9 cds. 11 hrs. Audio Renaissance. 1-59397-689-5. $39.95. Cardboard; plot, author, reader notes. SA

Cunningham's flawed but ambitious experimental novel tells three separate, related stories in three different ways. Part

I, "In the Machine," is a lyrical tale of the supernatural set in New York City at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution when the concept of mechanization looms so large that each piece of equipment actually takes on a life of its own. Part II, "The Children's Crusade," is a contemporary police procedural in which a team of NYPD detectives tries to identify and apprehend a group of child suicide bombers whose random acts of violence are terrorizing the city. Part III, a SF story, opens in New York at some point in the future after an event referred to only as "The Great Meltdown."

While each of the sections can stand alone, they are united and deepened thematically through recurring symbols and motifs, the most significant of which is the haunting poetry and visionary philosophy of Walt Whitman. Actor Cumming's expressive, fully differentiated reading frequently soars, doing justice equally to both Whitman and Cunningham. Francine Levitov, New York, NY