The Tongues of Angels

by Reynolds Price

"I'm as peaceful a man as you're likely to meet in America now, but this is about a death I may have caused. Not slowly over time by abuse or meanness but on a certain day and by ignorance, by plain lack of notice. Though it happened thirty-four years ago, and though I can't say it's haunted my mind that many nights lately, I suspect I can draw it out for you now, clear as this noon. I may need to try."
Set in a summer camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains during the deceptively tranquil 1950s, The Tongues of Angels is a story of the twenty-one-year-old painting teacher, a superbly gifted boy, and their advance toward a startling fate. As the now-older man looks back at on that summer, he reflects on the meanings he thought he had learned on the threshold of manhood from the perspective of full maturity.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 16, 1990

About the author

Reynolds Price was born in Macon, North Carolina in 1933. Educated at Duke University and, as a Rhodes Scholar, at Merton College, Oxford University. He taught at Duke since 1958 and was James B. Duke Professor of English.

His first short stories, and many later ones, are published in his Collected Stories. A Long and Happy Life was published in 1962 and won the William Faulkner Award for a best first novel. Kate Vaiden was published in 1986 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Good Priest's Son in 2005 was his fourteenth novel. Among his thirty-seven volumes are further collections of fiction, poetry, plays, essays, and translations. Price was a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and his work has been translated into seventeen languages.

Photo courtesy of Reynolds Price's author page on Amazon.com

Reviews

[Don Thomson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book for the flood of memories it brought me. Although fiction, it was set in a place close to my heart: Camp Sequoyah. Set in 1954 but all descriptions of the camp property, cabins, buildings, activities, camp fires, rituals were all just as I remember it in the late 60's. The writing and story are wonderful. This book made me laugh and almost weep on many levels.

[Marguerite (Margot) Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I now will have to read others of his work. I went to camp in the fifties in Canada, no memories this profound but the writing is superb. I just couldn’t put it down.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.7

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Takes place in 1954. A young man, Bridge Boatner, works as a counselor at a summer camp for boys in the Great Smoky Mountains. He tells you right at the beginning that one boy dies (so this is not a spoiler!), and Bridge feels at least partly responsible for the death. It's really fun to read about the quaint summer camp of the 50's. You know something bad is going to happen and to whom right from the start, so that gives it a nice tension all the way through, wondering how and when this bad thing will happen.
I like Reynolds Price. His writing is deceptively simple, easy to read, but with more depth than it might appear.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is set in 1954 in a boys' camp in the Smoky Mountains, where Bridge Boatner is a counselor. There is an expectation of a tragedy from the onset, and Reynolds Price sets the stage for it in his signature courtly, elegant writing style. It begins slowly as Bridge's personality emerges and builds to a heartbreaking end. The story is told from Bridge's adult perspective, which adds an extra dimension. Reynolds Price is a treasured story teller.

[Crystal J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting......I was kept on edge waiting for the climactic end to the story of Rafe and Bridge Boatner. Reynolds Price is so poetic, the words seem to dance off the page, forming a colorful portrait of characters which is totally unlike any other author I have read. I look forward to reading more of his work.

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving account of a 21-year-old summer camp counselor's encounter with a memorable 14-year-old boy. It had lots to say about the meaning of art (the counselor was a painter, the boy a remarkable dancer), some about faith, & more about dealing with loss.

[Chuck McGrady · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book because I recognize the summer camp and most of the fictional characters. The summer camp was Camp Sequoyah outside of Weaverville, NC. I attended that camp from 1960 to 1969, and from 1972-1973. For my first eight years, the owner/director was C. Walton Johnson, known as "Chief." He founded the camp in 1924. My father and uncle attended the camp in the 1930's, and my brother and I attending in the 1960's and 70's.

While it is true that the plot of the story involving a counselor and the camper is fictional, the author was a counselor at this camp in the 1950's, serving as the editor of the camp newsletter, The Thunderbird. The book contains the usual disclaimer that the "Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or use fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual events or persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental." That disclaimer is not totally accurate. The plot may be fictional, but anyone who attended Camp Sequoyah will recognize the characters, particularly Chief Johnson and James "Pop" Hollingsworth, who was the Program Director for decades.

Camp Sequoyah is now gone. It closed after the summer of 1978 when the dam for its lake was destroyed following a flood caused by the remnants of a hurricane. However, parts of what it was live on in other camps in the area, including Falling Creek Camp, a camp I owned and operated for close to two decades.

I didn't like the author's story as much as I liked his description of the camp and its staff and rituals. Reynolds Price was a fine reader, though, and his skills as a storyteller are very clear from this book. His description of Camp Sequoyah, Chief, Pop, and a host of others in the first third of the evoke very strong, positive memories of the place, its people and a special time in my life.

[Mary Cassidy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the blessings of the Covid lockdown for me has been that, being unable to visit the library, I have been working my way through books bought at used book stores that looked interesting, then sat in the large large pile by the stairs. This was one. I have like other works by Price, so delved into this. It is at times painful, often poetic, set in one of my favorite places in the world, the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina, and written from the point of view of an older artist coming to terms with a crisis of his early twenties. I would give it a four and a half stars, but as that is impossible, decided to grade up.

[Nicola Venturini · Rating 2 out of 5]

i was bamboozled. the premise sounded interesting (artist camp counselor and a camper with a talent for dancing) but it dragged ON AND ON AND ON. some parts went deep into historical topics which i appreciated, but i found myself talking to the book and saying “just get to the point please for the love of god.” all in all, it was a quick read. gorgeous writing in some parts, very vivid imagery, but not my cup of tea.

[Terry Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written tale of young love and reflection

[Jeanne Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Reynolds Price. Good story in a familiar setting.

[Dianelw · Rating 4 out of 5]

No one has a voice like Reynolds Price. I decided to return and hear it.

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written reflection on the transition from boyhood to manhood: a study on hindsight. A spiritual awakening disguised as a child, all wrapped up in the wonder of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

[DeAja · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75. I can’t explain what I loved about the book but once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. It’s definitely a weird read but just piqued my interest.

[Bob Schmitz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up in a doctors office with a note on it "This book is free if you would like it" or some such. Never having read anything by Reynolds Price, a North Carolina author who does or did teach at Duke, I started to read. Wow the language was so beautiful. Good authors can explain what the reader has experience, thought, felt better than him/herself and Price sure did!

I took the book home and was enthralled for the first half. Then the story, of a young college student being a counselor at a boys summer camp in the mountains of NC the 50's got hard to believe to me. A 14 year old camper Raphael was introduced and he somehow is wiser and more mystical and spiritual than is age and the 21 year old counselor is enthralled by this boy......The story goes on but my simple and perhaps non artistic mind could just not follow and believe what Mr. Price was telling.

I finished the book. I learned some new words: epicene: effeminate, pawky: sly, roach: page 61: "a porcupine quill roach on his head"): Not in dictionary!!!!!, and the best fantods: the willies! I might pick up another of Reynolds Prices' books because the language was so beautiful and his perceptions so keen but I hope the story is more satisfying.

[Joell · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 3.5 stars I guess. I really like Reynolds Price. I like his slow, southern style. Makes you feel like sitting on a hot porch swatting bugs. The MC in the story is quite the fascinating character and the narrator - not so much.

At the end, I felt like Price cranked out a story based on himself as a narrator and as someone who really interested him as an MC, but he kind of tried to phone in the story. Maybe it's just that I'm not a painter and I think that Price really wanted you to look into the question of "does life imitate art or the other way around" question and I just was never convinced or compelled to believe in the narrator's art.

Great writing, good characters, weak story. IMHO

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The language is clean and beautiful; the setting idyllic, begging for nostalgia and primed for historical commentary; the characters ... meh. The narrator, Bridge Boatner, was more captivating than the supposedly captivating boy who enthralled him that summer long ago. I truly wanted to find something special in Rafe Noren. After all, the book pushes the reader hard in that direction. But nothing really lay behind the hype, and I was left feeling like a puppy shoved into an once-promising but now unwanted dish. Overall, it's a masterly crafted book that fell short of its own expectations.

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love Reynolds Price's slow and suspenseful writing style and great character development. He is a quintessential Southern writer. He makes me think. I would give this a 3.5 but not quite a 4. These particular characters were not ones that I personally related to, but again, I enjoy his style. Talking about with my book club tomorrow and interested in their thoughts.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

this man is a simply splendid writer telling a vivid and haunting tale. I love him. I will read all of his stuff.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

CAMP.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. Took me back to my camp counselor days and some early adolescents I learned from.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

not his best, but well worth reading. 1950s experience in a summer camp for boys in NC mountains near ashville. Published in 1990