KATE VAIDEN

Rating:
Summary: Amazing, gritty, and meaty!
Review: A friend gave me this book, telling me it was one of her favorites -- I'd never heard of it, or of Reynolds Price, but it's definitely one of my favorites now! From beginning to end, I was absolutely in thrall to Kate and her life, her quiet calmness and path through life. I was impelled onwards by the desire to know what came next, what she would do next.

Kate is not entirely believable, even given the conventions of fiction and a little poetic license - she is a little TOO self-directed and unswayed by others, and the characterization of her sexuality is curiously flat -- what was intended perhaps as the reticence of the era comes across as an absence of passion, even for Gaston.

The writing and characterizations, the subtlety and flamboyance (two qualities not often combined) of the prose and dialogue were an immense pleasure to read and to hear in my mind's ear. In the grand tradition of Southern novelists, Reynolds Price captures not just Kate's life but also the ambience of small-town families and a peculiar live-and-let-live attitude that comes with people being simultaneously crammed together and kept apart.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: I am a big fan of southern fiction and enjoyed Price's book quite a bit. I read it in about a week, reading right before I went to bed. It pulls you in and it is hard to put down, particularly because it isn't broken up into chapters so there aren't easy stopping points. I had a little bit of a hard time relating to Kate's decisions in the book, but I suppose that is often the mark of a good character-- she is not transparent and your every-day kind of person. I fully appriciated the ending which explains a lot that you wonder about throughout the book. I didn't mark it five stars because, although I enjoyed it, it certainly doesn't rank up there with *stand out* books that I would read again. I also see quite a bit of similarity in his writing, and always appriciate an author that can vary his or her style a bit more. Overall, however, worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: Oddly balanced, like that fork and cork on a glass trick
Review: I needed a book to read on a long train ride, and -Kate Vaiden- was given to me. I had no idea who Reynolds Price was, or what kind of book I would be reading. Willing to try something new, I dove into Kate's Depression-Era world and found myself alternately enthralled and confused. Price has a gift for writing a woman's voice, but not a woman's character. Granted, this is the '90s, and women are not only more outspoken and emotional, but people in general are more passionate. I found Kate very hard to believe in her disregard for other people and her deadpan stoicism through her life's many tragedies. Still, this was a book I found hard to put down. Price's language is descriptive, and I love his use of colloquialisms and imagery. If Kate herself had a little more feeling, I would have found the story more believable, but all in all, -Kate Vaiden- was an enjoyable book, and I intend to read more of Reynolds Price.

Rating:
Summary: Unconvincing
Review: Kate Vaiden is a novel filled with unrealistic characters doing unlikely things for unexplained reasons. The biggest problem is Kate Vaiden herself. She doesn't think or act like any woman I have ever run across, in truth or in fiction. As a woman myself, I found Mr. Price's attempt to write in a woman's voice singularly unsuccessful. But Kate is not the only problem. None of the characters' thought processes or emotional impulses are clearly conveyed. Certainly Kate, as narrator, doesn't clue us into the motives of the people she describes to us. I suppose one could say that in this way the novel reflects real life, because we often do not understand the purpose behind the actions of the people we meet. But frankly, I expect more than that from a novel. I expect purpose and meaning, characters who come alive on the page because they behave in some manner that I can perceive as authentic. Instead, this novel only left me with questions. Why did the characters do the things they did? And what in the world was the author's purpose in writing this book?

Rating:
Summary: Unconvincing
Review: Kate Vaiden is a novel filled with unrealistic characters doing unlikely things for unexplained reasons. The biggest problem is Kate Vaiden herself. She doesn't think or act like any woman I have ever run across, in truth or in fiction. As a woman myself, I found Mr. Price's attempt to write in a woman's voice singularly unsuccessful. But Kate is not the only problem. None of the characters' thought processes or emotional impulses are clearly conveyed. Certainly Kate, as narrator, doesn't clue us into the motives of the people she describes to us. I suppose one could say that in this way the novel reflects real life, because we often do not understand the purpose behind the actions of the people we meet. But frankly, I expect more than that from a novel. I expect purpose and meaning, characters who come alive on the page because they behave in some manner that I can perceive as authentic. Instead, this novel only left me with questions. Why did the characters do the things they did? And what in the world was the author's purpose in writing this book?

Rating:
Summary: Kate Vaiden: A tainted heroine
Review: Kate Vaiden is a wonderfully real character who is refreshing to hear from. Despite her somewhat tragic life, she remains real, witty, intimate with the reader, and honest with herself. The descriptions of Macon, North Carolina are so simple yet so eloquent and poignant. More important than the poetic imagery and the interesting storyline is the presentation of a woman who has lived and made mistakes (and plenty of them) and makes no excuses for her actions nor does she express regret for her life. She is a strong, honest, and, despite her faults, an admirable character at least in that she is more mature than half the population today; she needs not blame anyone else for her mistakes and she does not wallow either. Reynolds Price should be proud to have written such a character and simply for Kate's voice this is a book to be read, and in my case, enjoyed.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This was a mother's day gift from my daughter, and a first shot at Reynolds Price. I loved it. This author understands small places in the south. As a mother (and this is in the very first paragraphs of the novel), I just couldn't fathom how Kate Vaiden could have abandoned her child when he was just a baby, and "down for a nap." But Kate's life certainly explains it. Understanding why she abandons her child doesn't make it easy to forgive her. It's great that Reynold Price tells the story in the order he does, because you keep asking yourself, "how could she possibly have done such a thing, and how can she ever be redeemed?" The expressiveness in the dialogue is especially great. Kate Vaiden's story will linger for a long time; I feel better for having experienced it. And bravo to a male author who can write from a female protagonist's perspective like this.

Rating:
Summary: A great read, a great writer...
Review: This was my introduction to Reynolds Price, and I am most glad to make the acquaintance. Kate Vaiden is on the receiving end of uncommonly tragic circumstances in early life, and her reactions and choices springing from these events are one part exhasperating, one part predictable, often dreamlike - we can't be meant to like her. Watching Kate's inner character warp over time as a result of these events is a box seat to a slow train wreck, but the machinations of plot are mainly just an excuse to read Price's wonderful prose. Is the female voice of the main character believable? Is Kate knowing, or a victim of her Southern life and times? There is much to ponder, but the ending, replete with hopeful likelihoods, makes you wish Price had simply continued unfurling the story so as to enjoy more of his dense, beautiful writing about it.

Rating:
Summary: A great read, a great writer...
Review: This was my introduction to Reynolds Price, and I am most glad to make the acquaintance. Kate Vaiden is on the receiving end of uncommonly tragic circumstances in early life, and her reactions and choices springing from these events are one part exhasperating, one part predictable, often dreamlike - we can't be meant to like her. Watching Kate's inner character warp over time as a result of these events is a box seat to a slow train wreck, but the machinations of plot are mainly just an excuse to read Price's wonderful prose. Is the female voice of the main character believable? Is Kate knowing, or a victim of her Southern life and times? There is much to ponder, but the ending, replete with hopeful likelihoods, makes you wish Price had simply continued unfurling the story so as to enjoy more of his dense, beautiful writing about it.

Rating:
Summary: Kate Vaiden: Drag Queen
Review: While I would never assume that a man couldn't write in a woman's voice, Kate Vaiden sorely tempts my judgment. Reynolds Price tries to capture the female voice and consciousness of his narrator Kate and fails wildly. Kate is so laughably unconvincing that I thought perhaps I had misread it. However, when I showed the book to several other women, they all agreed. Kate is so clearly what a man envisions a woman to be (and so clearly NOT a woman), that I'm tempted to call the book a post-modern attempt at drag, and badly done at that. While there is some nicely honed prose, the story itself relies too much on contrived plot twists and thoroughly sentimental epiphanies. The dull story aside, the real interest lies in Kate's voice. Like a poorly rehearsed ventriloquist act, Kate Vaiden betrays its author's voice and bizarre conceptions of feminity again and again, transforming the novel from unintentional parody into high comedy.