Love and Work

by Reynolds Price

Thomas Ebhorn, writer, husband and son, journeys through a maze of self-realization and despair when the death of his mother leads him to reexamine his past, present, and future

Genres: Fiction

149 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

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

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

He creates images throughout. Here's a sample of what he finds in the empty-appearing house when he dashes there after receiving a phone call telling him that something had happened to his mother. He'd heard no sounds and was sorting through possibilities when he entered the den and then saw....."Ida Nolan - marooned in the midst of his mother's den alone, her round face blotched and inflated from tears. Yet Eborn's first thought was not "Why tears?" but "How odd to see Ida outside her own house. She can still stand and walk!" (High blood-pressure and television had hobbled her firmly as a Chinese empress, her only move being Mass twice a week)."

There are dozens more, and they all move the plot along as Eborn - having lost both parents - discovers that their lives - seemingly and uneventful - had a core of love for each other that is lacking in his life.

Price is a good read.

[G Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will read more of Price for his use of language. I do hope, however, that I enjoy the next story more than I did this one.