Good Hearts

A Long and Happy Life #2

by Reynolds Price

In this love story set in North Carolina and Tennessee, Wesley Beaver plans to abandon his thirty-year marriage to Rosacohe Mustian, but his decision forces them to confront questions of faith, commitment, and will, love and good heartedness

Genres: Fiction

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

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

[Chana · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated it, truly hated it.
The basic premise is: couple married for 28 years, she is 48, he is 50. They got married because Rosa was pregnant but have been happy, or so Rosa thought. Wesley feels he was trapped into marriage although he "loves" Rosa. He disappears every once in awhile, always taken back by Rosa, but this time he leaves shortly before Christmas and is gone for 4 months. He doesn't even contact her for close to 2 months. Rosa is in pain; Wesley thought he "was dead" and had to get away. Now he is living in a different state with a young woman in her early 20's and enjoying a sex life he never thought he would see again.

Wesley says he thinks he should never have gotten married. I agree with him as he is a moral wasteland with delusions of sexual grandeur. For example if he gave a few women an hour or so of pleasure that they needed then that wasn't cheating, he was just helping someone out. Running out on his marriage and living with another woman, that is adultery, but he is oh so happy until she asks for a bigger commitment. She should have asked after the sex that morning rather than before. His wounded male ego couldn't handle being told no.

Rosa, the wife. Why is it that so often her thoughts and conversations contain allusions to incest? Not as a victim but as a willing participant, her brother being the one most brought into focus in this way although she says nothing ever happened.

Wave the rapist. Another one who thinks he is saving women and giving them what they need by raping them. He is so delusional that he is mentally ill.

Milo the brother. Married unhappily for years, loves his sister Rosa, claims he is a virgin.

Rato the brother. Likes anonymity and being alone. Has a shrine to Rosa in a neighbor's house. Everyone thinks he is mentally deficient but maybe he is smarter than everyone else. Lives with his mother most of the time.

Would anyone like to join me reading about this demented cast of southern characters? Pardon me if I am leaving. If a book can be said to be a window into a writer's mind, I am shutting the window. I will not read this author again.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book begins with our married couple heading off to a night of sleep.
It is December, soon to be their wedding anniversary.
Wesley sleeps & has vivid dreams, they inform him & his way of life.
And that night he dreams.
Rosacoke~~ we learn that her dreams are much more lyrical &
they always seem to entwine her world with Wesley's.
She sees her life no other way.
He sees her as so strong as to have no need of him.
They both see things as they are not.
He lives a life that is still sensual ~ physical~ .
She lives her life with a love for him that she feels she would not be able to exist without & yet they miss that meeting place where they are one.
That place where two people meet & know this is our why.
And so Wesley feels lost.
She needs him & yet he feels that he has died.
That this world must be forsook & once again he walks away.
She is left to share with him what is going on by way of her diary.
Diaries & Dreams.
We learn about this couple by reading their words -
written & thought for one another never knowing if the other will ever come across them.
What a beautiful book..........
the end comes but as you read ~ you just do not know ........
Even with the tragedy of near violence, Mr. Price makes you feel
in your heart what love can be & what love becomes
& why you must always let it grow.
Why we must always grow & stop & wait for life to catch up or not.
Life Lessons.
I know it is the end of the story of the marriage, which began
with his first novel " A Long And Happy Life", but I found this book
last weekend at my Library.
A surprise find.
A gift.
They have a whole section of books that they sell.
Old library books that have not been checked out for ages.
Books donated to the library to ensure funds come in & keep money available~
So we readers have books to drown in.

I knew the name Reynolds Price, why?
Anne Tyler is that why?
Maybe, she was his student & she is amazing.

But Good Hearts~~kept me wanting to stay in the pages & not let them end.
This book is a wonderful read.
It kept my nose twitching.
I found myself reaching for the highlighter & writing a passage or two
into my journal.
Relationships ....
Marriages...
Friendships........
We all have our role that we play within them
And those we enter into the dance with have their role.
Sometimes we expect we are giving when they are needing
And sometimes they are needing & they are the forsooken.

This book made me feel a deepness in my soul, that is what
I kept thinking as I read it.

I love when I come across books that have these type of wonderful
photo's as their covers.

For some reason, when I picked it up ~ I immediately thought of
"Crossing to Safety" I wonder if anyone else had that same notion.
So ............this book............Read it.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the sequel some twenty years later to Long and Happy Life. It is uneven, contrived, and seems to be a story exploited for some other reason - the unsatisfactory justification for some men's cruelty toward women - which may make it a midlife crisis apology book.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are no spoilers; everything I have said is on the cover blurb.

I wish we could assign negative stars. I can't believe I had this book in my bookcase for several decades. I must have read it once before, but I don't understand why I might have saved it.

The main male character whines about how he always believed he was born as a bright shining star in the world and is disappointed now at 50 because he feels no one notices how bright he is. He has one-night stands with strangers (19 so far) but doesn't believe he is cheating on his wife because he is spreading his joy and brightness. He takes off without telling anyone (wife, child, or work), which he done several times before in his marriage but never for so long. Everyone seems to feel this is okay because it's the way he is.

The main female character whines about having placed her husband on a pedestal and can't understand why her husband is gone. She fantasizes about her brother coming on to her sexually and wishes he had in their youth. She is raped and treats it like a one-night stand.

I don't understand the book and definitely don't like it. I will not go back in my bookcase and is marked as a "never-again" read.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Price, he's a great Southern writer, but can't say I enjoyed this book. Published in 1988 about marital abandonment, rape and male narcissism, it's written from a myopic male perspective I couldn't find convincing when, during the narrative, he took on a woman's POV. PS I am a Southern woman of this era and found myself shrugging...

[Cathy Hawkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will not forget this book for a very long time. I haven’t spent a lot of time it seems digging into the male psyche. I entered the world of Wesley the wayward husband hook line and sinker. I am still not sure what to think about him even after I finished the book. It was an achingly sad story at times punctuated with Southern wisdom and humor.

[Millicent · Rating 3 out of 5]

What starts out to be a very simple story turns out to be anything but!

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Writing style is interesting... and that's the only good thing I can say about it.

[Nicole Northrup · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy a good Southern writer, you must try Reynolds Price.

[Susan Ludwig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good although the ending was not completely satisfying

[Milt · Rating 4 out of 5]

and some gentle people. This one is true. Grace happens.

[Diane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't even finish the first chapter.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot may not be easy to accept but it's still a 4 (just barely). Reynolds Price has been an author whose writing I've enjoyed for many years. This one is more on the dark side (maybe they all are?) but .....

An explanation of my star rating.
5= Truly cream of the crop. Amazing. In a wondrous realm of their own
4= Special and well written. Truly a good/maybe great book, but not a rare 5 star wonder.
3= Moments of brilliance, a pleasure to read. I'd recommend it.
2= An average book... since I'm not usually reading mass market romances/mysteries, they are average in MY range of books. (I admit that sounds snarky)
1= Why did I bother to read this? I was lured past a certain point and I finished it. "Finish what you start" has been largely replaced with "ditch it if it's not worth my time" but for some reason I slogged on.

[Sonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this book 4 stars because of the writing. His metaphors are wonderful. I would give the story a 3. Actually, the story was OK but I didn't like the constant reference to how some of the men characters felt about their bodies and sex. I'm not a prude (I like sex as much as the next person) and maybe it's just the way everything was described but it just didn't sit well with me. I guess that's why I prefer books written by women. Mr. Price is an excellent writer and I would like to tackle another of his books, maybe a memoir instead.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well constructed, thoroughly believable, the plot involves a man who leaves his wife unexpectedly - even to him - and without notice drives off because he feels he must. His innermost thoughts revealed during the weeks that follow, one can't help empathizing with him every step of the way. A professor of English, he writes so well that every page is a pleasure and one hopes that his students learn how he does it. I'll have to check out more of his novels.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read many of Reynold Price's novels, so I was more than a bit excited when I found "Good Hearts" at a recent library "all the books you can stuff into a brown grocery bag for $2" sale, and I liked this book.

It's a nice hard copy and I think I will donate it to the "Little Free Library" next time I walk past it.

[Jenness · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could not get involved in this story. I didn't even finish the book. I stimply had no interest in the characters and therefore no interest in what was happening to them.

[Joe Mossa · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is a well written,very sexy man s way of telling a love story.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

So-so. Story of a middle-aged married couple in the midst of a mid-life crisis. It's been done before.

[Dawn Wells · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite although we know its real life and happens all the time.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like style and his description of people and life in the South

[Benjamin Thomas Sutpen]

http://sensemania.blogspot.com/2011/1...