Sort of Rich

Tula Springs

by James Wilcox

Forty-year-old Gretchen Dambar leaves Manhattan with her new husband to settle in Tula Springs, Louisiana, where the comic mishaps of trying to adjust to his eclectic household take a tragic turn. By the author of Modern Baptists. Reprint.

Genres: Fiction

278 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1990

About the author

James Wilcox (b. 1949 in Hammond, Louisiana) is an American novelist and a professor at LSU in Baton Rouge.

Wilcox is the author of eight comic novels set in, or featuring characters from, the fictional town of Tula Springs, Louisiana. Wilcox's first book Modern Baptists (1983) remains his best known work. His other novels are North Gladiola (1985), Miss Undine's Living Room (1987), Sort of Rich (1989), Polite Sex (1991), Guest of a Sinner (1993), Plain and Normal (1998), Heavenly Days (2003), and Hunk City (2007). Wilcox is also the author of three short stories that were published in The New Yorker between 1981 and 1986, three of only four short stories that the author has published. He has written book reviews for The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, and two pieces for ELLE. He was the subject of an article by James B. Stewart in The New Yorker's 1994 summer fiction issue; entitled "Moby Dick in Manhattan", it detailed his struggle to survive as a writer devoted purely to literary fiction.

Wilcox, a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1986, has held the Robert Penn Warren Professorship at Louisiana State University since September 2004. He is also the director of the university's creative writing program.

Reviews

[🐴 🍖]

the hits keep on comin. central to this one are an impulsively married newlywed from manhattan and the husband's handyman-cum-bff, who end up kinda mutually semi-deliberately gaslighting each other (not explaining this well but if you read it you'll be like "oh, word"). strong carpenter's gothic vibes, in case you were wondering from the preceding, & wilcox again pulls off that trick whereby you end up blindsided w/r/t how high the dramatic stakes are, since the particulars are e.g. the purchase of a cow as a gift and an altercation over wall-to-wall carpeting, and everything stays light & fluffy until like... it's not anymore. i will say that the shocking thing that happens 3/4 of the way thru is placed super awkwardly; it didn't derail the narrative altogether as i'd feared, but still, super awkward placement. slight bummer that there's only one more book set in tula springs after this, but given that my guy is still alive and teaching at lsu, hope springs eternal, yeah?

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deft handling of a large cast, like other Southern novels. A lady from NYC marries into the large household of a New Orleans widower. Much of it is very funny, till tragedy forces her to come to terms with people she'd misunderstood.

[Kkraemer · Rating 3 out of 5]

"...after all, how many of her friends had managed to marry the love of their lives?...one had openly admitted that her second husband was a compromise, a steady, unimaginative corporate lawyer who made up for her passionate and jailed first husband. The list went on and on. Perhaps that was why she rarely heard from them. To confront the real thing, a marriage as deep and loving as hers, must be threatening. And probably they must resent the courage she had shown. To uproot herself so completely from her past in order to devote herself to the love of her life -- well, it was positively romantic...Yes, it was a little peculiar -- she had to admit - how exhausting it was to live happily ever after. But nonetheless, she was doing it."

But, of course, she wasn't.

Had this book been written 75 years ago, it would have been a Katherine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy romantic romp where the northern woman and the southern man love each other and suspect each other of all manner of oddnesses. It would have been a comedy (at times it's laugh-out-loud), and it would have ended with the kind of positive reflection that any reader/viewer would hope for. Much learning would be done. Much living would be done, and nothing would be 100% resolved.

James Wilcox has a keen eye for interesting characters and the kinds of mix-ups that attend even the most passionately defended lives, and he sprinkles his books with hilarious images and insights. A truly enjoyable book.

[Linda Gaines · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this decades ago and it was still funny. Something to read that isn't so serious

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third Wilcox book I've read, and like the others, thoroughly enjoyable. I remember Modern Baptists as broader satire (although on a reread, I may realize this was wrong) so I wasn't sure how to approach Sort of Rich and Guest of a Sinner. They aren't satire, but they are funny; Francine Prose calls the books, in a blurb, modern comedies of manners, and that seems right to me. They have gentle humor, gentle pathos, and really excellent dialogue. This one is about an out-of-towner who literally bumps into her future husband at a souvenir shop in New Orleans, quickly marries him, and then tries to suppress her doubts about having hastily upended her life in New York for a cottage in Louisiana, which is decorated in Louis XV style with royal blue carpets. She is also suspicious of the morose, philosophical handyman who lives in a trailer out back, his step-neice who is serving as a maid while she applies to graduate school, and the sinister German housekeeper who remains loyal to first lady of the house (killed in a car accident).

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very strange story about a wealthy woman who moves from New York City to the South, marrying a man she doesn't really know. Loose ends at the end of the book, but lots of surprising twists to the story. Good character development.

[Janet Lynch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat entertaining, but sort of disappointing. Humor so understanded it isn't very funny.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read during Radcliffe Publishing course.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most excellent...