Roxanna Slade: A Novel

by Reynolds Price

Book Overview

Not since Reynolds Price's award-winning, bestselling novel Kate Vaiden has he told a woman's story in her own voice. Roxanna Slade is this woman. Roxanna begins her story on her twentieth birthday --... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684853736
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Scribner
• Length: 301 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

My favorite book from Reynolds Price

Although so many of his books are wonderful, this one of Price's spoke most clearly to my heart and soul.I felt that I was being given the privelige of sharing the life of a remarkable woman, although her life would seem ordinary to most - the life of one "average" woman living in the South, a woman often struggling with great hardship, trials and challenges. I've rarely read a novel which looks so honestly at the realities of the racial views of those times, the ways blacks and whites were so separate and why. The often constrained life of women is also portrayed, the endless days with long stretches of time between chores and mealtime and nothing else to do. What is so amazing is how Reynolds Price can make a riveting tale out of such seemingly trivial material - and make the lives of these people reveal a view of the world that is both spiritual and real and absolutely believeable. While the book is far from overwhelmingly gloomy, Price's description of the four year depression which Roxanna suffers at one point in the book is the most honest, unsentimental and yet vivid portrayal of depression I've encountered in a novel, one that those in the mental health professions would do well to read. The real heart of this book lies in Roxanna, of course, and she is a woman both flawed and saintly. An unforgettable character, the kind that will be walking beside me in my thoughts for awhile.

A wonderful read... needs a porch and a glass of lemonade...

I was so touched by Roxanna's look at the world - her words of wisdom, her experiences, what she admits to feeling and being... I hope to be as lucid and content with my life at 90! So many of her thoughts had me laughing and thinking and looking inwardly... I'm going to recommend this to the special women in my bookclub - and I look forward to reading more by Mr. Price (emphasis on "mister" - can't believe a man wrote this and could understand a woman so deeply and as if he were looking through our eyes).

Thank you Mr. Price for another wonderful woman.

Since my acquaintance with Kate Vaiden, Reynolds Price's award winning teenage heroine, I have been eagerly awaiting another wonderful female subject. And, Price has not disappointed. How does he get into our shoes, heart and soul? Obviously, he has observed and cared about the women who have peopled his life. For me, another astonishing accomplishment in this book is Price's ability to depict the agony of reoccurring depression better than most clinical textbooks describe it. Like Roxanna, herself, the definition of depressive disorder is simple, it is the invisible enemy, full of fury and pain, disappearing and returning without warning or compassion for its victim, and her frustrated and helpless family.

Much better than Kate Vaiden

Roxanna Slade was the first Reynolds Price book I ever read. Price's ability to make Roxanna become a flesh & blood person through words is amazing. He puts the reader right in the middle of the story and it's like YOU ARE THERE. The other characters are very sharply drawn also, expecially Roxanna's mother-in-law. Naturally, when I read Roxanna Slade, I couldn't wait to check out his other works and the first one I chose was Kate Vaiden. In my estimation, this book, which was widely acclaimed, fell far short of the mark. Of course, since Price seems to be headed in the right direction, I'll be waiting for his next venture.

Roxanna Slade had an ordinary life and extraordinary insight

One of the best books I have read in years. From an ordinary life with its share of sorrows and joys, Reynolds Price shares wonderful insight about what life is really made. How can a man creep into a soul and body of a woman with such authenticity? Just reading this book reminds me of the pleasure of reading KATE Vaiden, another book I enjoyed. Bravo, writing well can still be moving.