A lovingly detailed record of a long and seemingly modest life,
given resonance by the prolific Price's extraordinary language and
his sharp eye for the subtle complexities of character (The Promise
of Rest, 1995, etc.). Roxana Slade, born with the century, looks
back from the near present over her long and (seemingly) uneventful
life as a wife and mother in a small North Carolina town. While
seeming to focus on the ups and downs of her marriage to the
decent, somewhat stolid Palmer, and the lives of her son and
daughter, she also creates a rich portrait of a community dragged
reluctantly out of its venerable agricultural existence into the
raucous modern world. She begins by loving Palmer's younger
brother, the handsome, flamboyant Larkin, until, in one of the
tragedies that inevitably touch most lives, he dies in an accident.
It's only later that the quiet Palmer comes to her attention. Using
a first-person narrative plays to Price's strengths: Roxana's
language is frank, seemingly unadorned, but subtly colored both by
a tart regional flavor and by a nicely idiosyncratic rhythm and
pace. And her detailed portrait of an extended southern family over
time reminds us of Price's fascination with the decisive impact of
the family, for good or ill, on individuals. There are
appropriately dark scenes as well: Roxana, sinking into a bitter
depression, briefly assaults her own daughter. And Palmer, though
he is a devout and kindhearted figure, strikes his oldest friend in
a fit of anger, blinding him in one eye. What emerges from Roxana's
unblinking recollections is a portrait of an affectionate woman who
has learned to master her own anger, come to grips with her
regrets, and who has drawn from the incidents of her life a
hard-earned wisdom. Roxana is a memorable figure, and further
indication of Price's quiet, precise power as a novelist. (Kirkus
Reviews)
Not since Reynolds Price's award-winning, bestselling novel Kate Vaiden has he told a woman's story in her own voice. Roxanna Slade is this woman.
Roxanna begins her story on her twentieth birthday -- a day that introduces her to the harsh realities of adulthood and changes the course of her life forever. From this day on, Roxanna is quick to share with the reader the intimate details of ninety years of life in North Carolina. Her beguiling tale is one that boldly reflects the high and low moments in the development of the modern South and the nation as well as the inner strength of a woman possessed of a piercingly clear vision, forthright hungers and immense vitality.
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