Plain and Normal (Paperback, New ed)

Unrequited and misdirected loves are the ruefully comic matter of this sprightly seventh from the author of such inspired farces as Modern Baptists (1983) and Sort of Rich (1989). As often before, it's a denizen of Wilcox's likably deranged fictional hamlet of Tula Springs, Louisiana, who holds center stage. He's 40ish (Severinus) Lloyd Norris, now a New Yorker, working as a computer programmer for a company that manufactures labels for "personal care products." That's only a minor eccentricity in a narrative merrily aboil with them. You see, Lloyd, who's recently divorced from his old schoolmate Pearl Fay (whom he married when a football player made her pregnant), has realized he's gay. This is of no great consequence to his ex (who urges him to find a boyfriend), Lloyd's macho boss, his aggressively motherly secretary, and the dozen or so others brought together by Lloyd's volunteer work for "Manhattan Cares" and his timid gropings toward a sex life ("all he did in the privacy of his bedroom was eat Fritos and sleep"). Lloyd is a charmingly winsome character, but his distant acquaintances (such as a depressed widower and his estranged octogenarian roommate), whose stories Wilcox pursues in skimpy counterpoint-narratives, never really hold our interest. The novel works best as a collection of riffs on sexual insanity (while permitting a female "airhead" model to share his apartment, Lloyd must deal with ugly rumors alleging he's not gay), with some delicious incidental comedy (e.g., Pearl Fay botches a suicide attempt by swallowing a handful of vitamin C tablets). Wilcox ends it all with a series of pairings and reconciliations that do tie up loose ends, but also have the surely unintended effect of emphasizing his story's narrative unevenness and chaotic structure. Almost as much of a mess as Lloyd Norris's modestly frenetic pursuit of happiness and normality. Fortunately, it's also very often almost as endearing and entertaining. (Kirkus Reviews)

Mr Norris wants everyone to know that he is gay. The problem is, no one will believe him. His position isn't helped by the fact that he is living with his ex-wife and that he has never had sex with a man. Plain and Normal is James Wilcox's long awaited new novel. In his funniest novel yet, James Wilcox introduces us to a Mr Norris, a man who just wants his life to be plain and normal. Everything will be much easier if everyone is clear about who he is. That he is gay, for example. But unfortuantely life isn't that easy and people will keep on drawing the wrong conclusions. In this hilarious new novel Mr Norris gets in deeper and deeper. Only Mr Norris could go to a gay club on the wrong night, and, being too polite to leave, get into conversation with a homophobic lorry driver called Rocco. But then no one in this novel is as plain or as normal as they seem.

General

Imprint:	4th Estate
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	August 1999
Authors:	James Wilcox
Dimensions:	198 x 129 x 20mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - B-format
Pages:	288
Edition:	New ed
ISBN-13:	978-1-85702-981-9
Categories:	Books > Fiction > General & literary fiction > Modern fiction
LSN:	1-85702-981-X
Barcode:	9781857029819

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