Helpful Score: 5
Kate Vaiden may be one of Price's best pieces of work, he has a certain knack for making his character's voices heard and feelings felt. Price has been one of my favorites for years because he reaches into the characters souls and bares them up.
Helpful Score: 4
Being from NC and having gone to Duke, I've been acquainted with Reynolds Price's writings for some time, and I never cease to be amazed at how beautiful his novels are (and, in fact, his nonfiction and poetry as well). Kate Vaiden is probably my very favorite of his books - just stunning.
Helpful Score: 3
The author of this book is a professor at Duke University, and the book is a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. The main character is a woman who abandoned her son when she was 17 and now wants to see him. It's a story of an ordinary woman in extraordinary circumstances, and is joyous, tragic, comic and compelling. It is beautifully written.
Helpful Score: 2
Exquisite, finely written novel of true literary value. That doesn't mean it is 'dull,' by any means. This is just pure good literature - at times joyous, at times tragic, all compelling. What is even more compelling is that this was written just before and during Reynolds Price's catastrophic illness. How this author, a man, was able to probe the psychology and emotions of his main character, a woman, is incredible. Great story.
Helpful Score: 2
A story of a young girl growing up during WW2 in North Carolina. Told from her 57 year old self, looking back at her life. I thought it was very good.
Helpful Score: 2
This was one where I wanted to keep shhouting at the main character, "Stop! Don't make that choice! There is a better way!"
Helpful Score: 2
What a horrible heroine! She's completely unlikeable, pompous, and makes decisions beyond stupid for a teenager. The metaphor- and similie-laden writing detracts from the story, which isn't that interesting in the first place.
from the back cover:
We meet Kate at a crucial moment in middle age when she begins to yearn to see the son she abandoned when she was seventeen. But if she decides to seek him, will he understand her? The reader won't know Kate's decision until the novel's end, but along the way, will get to know a story as tragic, comic, and compelling as life itself, the story of a woman as real as any.
We meet Kate at a crucial moment in middle age when she begins to yearn to see the son she abandoned when she was seventeen. But if she decides to seek him, will he understand her? The reader won't know Kate's decision until the novel's end, but along the way, will get to know a story as tragic, comic, and compelling as life itself, the story of a woman as real as any.
Exquisite, finely written novel of true literary value. That doesn't mean it is 'dull,' by any means. This is just pure good literature - at times joyous, at times tragic, all compelling. What is even more compelling is that this was written just before and during Reynolds Price's catastrophic illness, chronicalled in his memoir, "A Whole New Life." How this author, a man, was able to probe the psychology and emotions of his main character, Kate Vaiden, a girl and woman, is incredible. Great story.
Excellent book.
An award winning book.
At first I just wanted to give Kate Vaiden a piece of my mind, along with a nice set of luggage, since she keeps moving around. It was none the less a good read-interesting.
