Call and Response

by T.R. Pearson

Meandering from comic set pieces to hilarious digressions, TR Pearson perfectly captures the peculiar lilts and rhythms of the South and spins a magical tale of love and all its manifold complications. The novel centers on Nestor Tudor, a middle-aged widower who is overfond of Ancient Age and Old Gold filters. Pearson interweaves the story of Nestor's late-blooming affection for Mary Alice Celestine Lefler with parallel stories of true love and broken hearts, young love and cheating hearts, and every other variety of courtship imaginable. Extravagantly funny and overflowing with the rich cadences and droll loquacity of Southern storytelling, Call and Response is a remarkable joy to read.

Genres: Fiction

382 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1989

About the author

Thomas Reid Pearson is an American novelist born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is the author of seventeen novels and four works of non-fiction under his own name, including A Short History of a Small Place, Cry Me A River, Jerusalem Gap, and Seaworthy, and has written three additional novels -- Ranchero, Beluga, and Nowhere Nice -- under the pseudonym Rick Gavin. Pearson has also ghostwritten several other books, both fiction and nonfiction, and has written or co-written various feature film and TV scripts.

Reviews

[Greg]

I love me some Pearson, and even though this one isn't my favorite, there's such a pleasure in going back to Neely. I enjoy the enlarged focus (at last!) on Mr. & Mrs. Philip J. Kings. ("At last?" This book came out in 1989, Maupin.)

So if you enjoyed Short History, Sweet Hereafter and Last of How it Was (my favorite), this is up that same alley - actually in the same emotional realm as Hereafter, but with middle-aged pink parts.

[Sharon]

At first I had trouble reading this book because it is written in a difficult syntax. I found that for me it took a lot of concentration but once I got the rhythm I really enjoyed it. It was laugh out loud funny. I look forward to read more by T. R. Pearson.

[Paula]

Enjoying this, but it takes some getting used to the writing style. Those long, run-on sentences! But they really add to the humor. One thing I've noticed is that this is really a collection of short stories set in the same town.

[John Forker]

One of the funniest books I've ever read. Yes, you have to get used to the style but it's a delight.