A Long and Happy Life - Tapa blanda

Dorothy Parker

"Esquire"

June 1962

Nothing could tear me from [discussing collections of short stories] save this lovely book, "A Long and Happy Life," by Reynolds Price -- and I cannot even begrudge the author his youth. Meticulously observed, beautifully told, it strikes too deep to fuss around with analysis. You can say only of it that it is indeed a lasting novel, a story of the South done with no violence -- you can say only, a lovely novel, with the firm brilliance of its writing to keep its loveliness from sticking to your fingers.

On its initial publication in 1962, Eudora Welty said of A Long and Happy Life, "Reynolds Price is the most impressive new writer I've come across in a long time. His is a first-rate talent and we are lucky that he has started so young to write so well. Here is a fine novel." From its dazzling opening page, which announced the appearance of a stylist of the first rank, to its moving close, this brief novel has charmed and captivated millions of readers since its publication twenty-five years ago and its subsequent translation into fifteen languages. On the triumphant publication of Kate Vaiden, his most recent novel, in 1986, there was almost no review that -- praising the new book to the skies -- didn't also mention in glowing terms the reviewer's fond recollection of the marvelous first novel, the troubled love story of Rosacoke Mustian and Wesley Beavers and its beautifully evoked vision of rural North Carolina. It is a pleasure now to restore to print the clothbound edition of this truly enduring work as a companion volume to his brilliant book of essays, A Common Room, published simultaneously.