Collected Stories of Reynolds Price

by Reynolds Price

For over three decades, Reynolds Price has been one of America's most distinguished writers, in a career that has been remarkable both for its virtuosity and for the variety of literary forms he has embraced. Now he shows himself as much a master of the story as he is of the novel, in a volume that presents fifty stories, including two early collections -- The Names and Faces of Heroes and Permanent Errors -- as well as more than two dozen new stories that have never been gathered together before.

In his introduction, Mr. Price explains how, after the publication of his first two collections, he wrote no new stories for almost twenty years. "But once I needed -- for unknown reasons in a new and radically altered life -- to return to the story, it opened before me like a new chance....A collection like this then," he adds, "...will show a writer's preoccupations in ways the novel severely rations (novels are partly made for that purpose -- the release from self, long flights through the Other). John Keats's assertion that 'the excellence of every Art is its intensity' has served as a license and standard for me. From the start my stories were driven by heat -- passion and mystery, often passion for the mystery I've found in particular rooms and spaces and the people they threaten or shelter -- and my general aim is the transfer of a spell of keen witness, perceived by the reader as warranted in character and act."

There is, indeed, much for the reader to "witness" here of passion and mystery, of character and act. And the variety of stories -- many of them set in Reynolds Price's native North Carolina, but a surprising number set in distant parts: Jerusalem in "An Early Christmas," the American Southwest in "Walking Lessons," and a number in Europe -- will astonish even his most devoted readers. In short, The Collected Stories of Reynolds Price is as deeply rewarding a book as any he has yet published.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, American

626 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

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

[Athena Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This enormous collection of short stories contains 50 stories written over a span of almost 40 years. Because the collection is so lengthy, diverse, and spans the two ends of Price's writing career, it is nearly impossible to summarize them in just a few sentences. I found a few of the stories to be very compelling, several to be quite good, and about half of them I felt little to no engagement with, and because these were the majority of the stories, I have quite mixed views about this collection as a whole.

Price's stories appear to be at least partially autobiographical, and touch on a few recurring themes. Many of the stories are about the coming-of-age of a 12-year-old boy - his first experiences in responsibility, sexual awakening, and understanding what it is to be a man (see, for example, "The Enormous Door"). Other stories are about the friendships and other relationships that develop between adult men ("A Final Account"). Several of the stories contain supernatural elements with ghosts, angels, and other spectres advancing the story. And many stories are about the loss of a partner, infidelity for sure, as in "Serious Need," or another I enjoyed, "Truth and Lies," about a woman who confronts her husband's mistress and learns something unexpected. But there are also a few about the suicide of a wife and its impact on the living husband - with a focus on the male perspective that I found frustrating (see, for example, "Good and Bad Dreams" and "Walking Lessons").

For me, the most authentic stories were about the relationship between black and white characters in Price's native North Carolina in the immediate post-civil war generations. Probably my favorite story in the collection was "The Anniversary," which, unusually for Price, was narrated by a woman. On the anniversary of the death of Pretty Billy, her fiance who tragically died the day before their wedding, Miss Lillian Belle, an old maid, narrates the story of their courtship, wedding planning, and his death to a young black boy, a neighbor. Her memories are poignant and compelling, and leave room to imagine a greater scandal that Miss Lillian Belle either intentionally omits or is actually innocent of - and the mystery rounds the story out perfectly.

A second favorite was "Uncle Grant," about the long friendship between the Price family and an elderly black man. Uncle Grant's character was vivid and complex, and the tensions between the white middle class Prices and the former slave really resonated with me (also read "Bess Waters" for a similarly compelling story). I suspect it is this kind of writing, and the American Southern voice, that flagged this collection to the Pulitzer committee.

[Jim Manis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories shorter than 20 pages are excellent; the ones over 20 pages, for the most part, seem a bit long winded.

Price's skill with sentences and description is remarkable.

I always enjoyed listening to him when he was a guest on NPR.

[Marilyn Lonon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some stories are really good, others so obscure and wordy as to be frustrating.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long book with quite a variety of stories short and long. Some are better than others and some are a bit odd. Mostly really good. Many have a Southern locale and somewhat autobiographical. One is about Dachau camp and the last is in Jerusalem. Worthwhile.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully crafted but, for me, not compelling.

[Ivy · Rating 4 out of 5]

See notebook notes