The Good Priest's Son: A Novel [Paperback]

In THE GOOD PRIEST'S SON, Reynolds Price continues a theme that runs throughout his recent fiction: redemption based on some sort of repentance-- perhaps having to do with black characters-- by a middle-aged white sinner, usually male, i.e., prodigal son, whose roots are in North Carolina. The character here is Mabry Kincaid, who at 53 is staring down the barrel of a gun-- he is awaiting further tests to determine if he is in the early stages of multiple sclerosis. A restorer of old paintings, he is on a flight back to the United States from Paris when the twin towers of the World Trade Center are hit by the terrorists on September 11, 2001, and his plane is diverted to Nova Scotia. He then returns to his old home in North Carolina to visit his ailing father, a retired Episcopal priest whose live-in housekeeper is Audrey Thornton, an African American doctoral student in divinity at Duke University. She is also the mother of Marcus, a 19-year-old who has fathered at child at 17 with his cousin and has hopes of becoming a successful artist one day.

The earmarks of Price's recent fiction are all here. A middle-aged Caucasian male apparently has just discovered that African Americans might be his equal. I suppose Mr. Price is to be commended for finally writing about sympathetic black characters. Both white Southern writers and readers certainly had to get to this place although other Southern artists were way ahead of Mr. Price. Carson Mccullers who over 60 years ago created memorable, decent black people in THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER as well as William Styron in THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER come to mind, just to name two. Mabry does much soul-searching and opines frequently about the cosmos. Some of his findings: men are base; men love nobody; men are sexually promiscuous; women are better; men have no friends; black people are better than white people, all other things being equal. Perhaps America on 9/11 was being paid back in part because of slavery. The contrast between whatever Mr. Price would call the North Carolina he writes about, whether rural or small town, and the rest of America. Then there is the religious overlay. The characters are usually pretty much main-line Protestant with a quirk here or there. Mabry, who has some residual religious feelings but not too many, is mildly repentant of his past life. He had many affairs while married but did see his wife through her final illness.

Whether you care for Mr. Price's story or not, he certainly can spin one and obviously knows his territory. Remember when folks put peanuts in their Cokes and ceiling lights were often turned on with a string suspended from the bare bulb? What man hasn't checked, for instance, to make sure his pants are zipped up before he enters a room? And most of us have acquaintances we only regard as "Christmas card" friends.

Price's characters sometimes stretch credibility. Some for instances: Mabry, who describes himself as not having one "gay gene" when the Australian Man Friday for a gay attorney who most assuredly was killed in he World Trade Center, thinks Mabry is making a pass at him, apparently has been totally comfortable from day one that his daughter is lesbian and is living with another woman. He is 53 and totally okay with that? Maybe. And, of course, the author's insistence on making saints out of his black characters although he does not go quite as overboard here as in his last novel, if I remember correctly. Marcus does have a child he's not supporting but then he's only 19. (There is a strange exchange between Marcus and Mabry when each person is to tell the other one "sixty seconds' worth of some private business that eats him up" They both relate stories of sexual excess. I suppose that shows that both black men and white men are roosters and equally red-blooded, equally decadent.) Finally, without giving away the ending, I'll point out that the priest's housekeeper has only worked for him for a month.

As always Mr. Price's language is beautiful. I just wish I liked these characters more, particularly Mabry.

to start with,i'll admit i am more than a little prejudiced when it comes to the very talanted mr. reynolds price. his books as well as his characters are always compelling and are much anticipated by me, considering i read very few modern authors.

what i like most of price's characters is though they are flawed,they have an obtainable redemption that they seem to either be chasing, or is chasing them. in this novel the character mabry is no exception. mabry is a man who is spending his time chasing the living ghosts who have comprised his life, and is coming to terms with each of them, but not always in the way he intends.

this book is very well written, but as always when you read a novel by price, you also have to kind of breathe in the words as you go along, because as an author, mr. price has more to be said in his prose than most writers say. that is where the beauty of price's writings really shine.

this book however moves very slowly, and i have seen a few reviews complaining about that. i believe the pacing in this book gives it a more meaningful quality. i believe that it is not just a book, but another fine piece of craftmanship that needs to be read by a large audience, like all of his works. for price is not only a fine novelist, but also a poet, commentator, religious scholar, essayist and playwrite.

Having some familiarity with the Episcopal Church, with the life and character of priests, and with the work of Reynolds Price (much admired by me in the past), I took up this novel with great interest and high expectations.

I was sorely disappointed. Mr Price seems remarkably unfamiliar with Episcopal theology and practices--for example, when he's discussing Communion (Episcopalians believe in the Real Presence but don't confuse it with transubstantiation; they don't talk about "pouring" communion) and even the benefits of the Church Pension Fund. And where were this priest's bishop and other clergy?

More importantly, the characters' speech is about the worst I've ever read. It's stilted, phoney, and completely unrealistic. Moreover, all the characters AND the narrator sound the same. And this novel takes Political Correctness to an absurd extreme. The main character, Mabry, not only speaks in a way that's at odds with how a 53-year-old white heterosexual male would talk; he's also one of the least-interesting, in fact off-putting characters in recent fiction. The only appealing character, Audrey (misprinted as Aubrey at one point), is sketched in two dimensions.

This book seems hurriedly written. The review above is correct when it says that "the major plot elements do not coalesce into a strong, single story." That's for sure. I am not even sure that this piece, as composed, would have made a good short story; maybe.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 5 reviews  3.8 out of 5 stars