Paging BuckyXTC --- Noble Norfleet

[bluenix]

Finally read Reynolds Price's latest. It's pretty good but in my view falls well short of his other novels. I'm thinking especially of the excellent The Promise of Rest.

 

I do think Price is good at making the oddest plot developments seem plausible. I mean, how many high school students do YOU know who are fucking their Spanish teacher at the same time as they're get blown by their priest? Mostly Price manages these improbable developments with seeming effortlessness.

 

I guess my objection is the looseness, sometimes verging on sloppiness, of the writing. Like the journalist who turned in his work saying, "Sorry, boss, I didn't have time to make it short." In places it almost seems as if the narrative is, rather than a novel in itself, notes for a novel yet to be written.

 

Still, when you get to grand old man status like Price has, I suppose these quibbles matter little.

 

BXTC, what did you think once you finished N.N.? I'm especially curious about the titular hero's name. Does Price mean to suggest that Mr. Norfleet's life is a "noble" one?

 

A nice thought but a weak case.

 

Still, we should all be so blessed as to only once in a while turn out something less than perfect.

[BuckyXTC]

Hey Bluenix:

 

I just finished Noble Norfleet a few days ago, and guess I would have to characterize it as a bit odd and strange.....I definitely agree with you that it is not his best work. I also concur with you on The Promise of Rest......hands down my favorite, with Roxanna Slade coming in a close second.

 

Price's genius lies in his ability to create powerful characters out of rather common folk. The first Price novel I read was "Good Hearts", and I marveled at his ability to make the reader experience the humanity of characters who would otherwise be seen as villains. In the case of "Good Hearts", a rapist.

 

If you haven't done so, be sure and read "Roxanna Slade". Even though the story focuses on the life of a woman, which might not normally interest me, the book kept me hooked page after page.

 

Considering the obstacles RP has to deal with every day, I am amazed at what he is able to accomplish in terms of writing. I can easily forgive him for "Noble Norfleet". I just hope he keeps writing and turns out something of the quality we have seen in his earlier works.