Reynolds PriceA Long and Happy Life: A Novel

I admit that after reading the first sentence of this novel, which goes on for quite awhile, I dreaded continuing. In fact, I put the book aside and didn't pick it up again for over a month. But with a book club meeting looming, and not wanting to be the only member who hadn't read it, I started again with an open mind.Boy, am I glad I did. This turned out to be one of the most beautifully written pieces of fiction that I have ever read. The prose flows across you like water and the characters are so genuine and believable.Do yourself a favor and read this book. And if you have a daughter, make sure she reads it too. The lessons for young women are valuable indeed.

My grandfather was a sharecropper in Southern Illinois. The culture of Southern Illinois is to a great degree Southern. I was born in 1944. I came of age in the 1950's experiencing some of what Reynolds Price describes in " Long and Happy Life"; the people, their Christianity, the terrain and its creatures, the out-of-doors pleasures and discomforts I look back on my grandparents home- no plumbing, no central heat, only electricity- with too much nostalgia I know, but I am thankful my parents took me to the farm, usually monthly on a week-end, to see people loved, rural, poor, hard-working and of a simpler, tougher time who could still wring some pleasure out of existence for themselves and for me. There was little hugging and "I love yous",but I knew I was loved and that I was with people who were most importantly adults. I later realized this is what children need most from parents and grandparents; that they be adults. Reynolds Price with a language alive and exactly right brings us the young, vigilent, love-struck Rosacoke Mustian. Rosacoke is one of the lovliest female creations in American literature. Rosa yearning, the handsome Wesley, her love ambivalent. You will like the people and wish Rosa happiness. If the story of Rosa and Wesley was put to music it would be the music of Buddy Holly. One of the best American novels ever.

This classic by a famous Southern author is a clear depiction of a small Southern town in the 1950's. The characters are well defined. The story is as sad as the town. So glad I finally read it.

This book haunted me. I was working on a short story and was recommended to check out A Long and Happy Life. As with all great literature, I inhaled it. The ache and pain of the characters, and the stillness of the world...I felt that somehow I had always known this world. There is a quality of Faulkner in the heat and poverty, and a tenderness coupled with strength which reminds me of Capote, but really it's a world all it's own. Highly recommended.

This is a beautiful little book! This bittersweet tale is a Southern classic by a then young but gifted writer. After reading the author's autobiography I felt compelled to buy this book on Amazon and was not dissapointed. Written in the tradition of early James Agee and Tennessee Williams it is a quick read that will stick to the soul of any reader. I love this book.

First- the book is beautifully written. Glaringly clear and very meandering. Not much plot. Just a quiet story of the ordinary life in the back woods of Virginia.

A Long and Happy Life is not a happy book. It starts with a funeral and gets darker from there. But it is realistic, told beautifully, compassionately, and hopefully. Even today, two generations after the events in Reynolds Price's story, there are all too many young people in rural North Carolina who make life's important decisions regarding a career, culture, religion, and a life partner with only the dimmest awareness that there are other choices.

Why haven't I heard of this Southern author before? A friend who taught college-level English in Florida gave me this book. It is now definitely on my list of top ten favorite books. By the way, it provided a lot of room for discussion in our book group--highly recommended, and it's short!

Big fan