Kate Vaiden (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

Every once in a while, by the alchemy of art or by sheer good luck, a writer creates a character who becomes, in the minds of thousands of readers, more than merely a figure in a book--becomes as unforgettably real as any flesh-and-blood person. Such a character is Kate Vaiden (her name rhymes with maiden), the protagonist and narrator of Reynolds Price’s sixth and finest novel.

Kate is fifty-seven--the year is 1984--as she sets out to tell her life story. The motive that gives urgency to the telling is laid bare in the novel’s first paragraph, though not until the closing...

[The entire page is 670 words long]

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