Kate Vaiden is an unpredictable, hard-scrabble North Carolinian.

She relates her tale of growing up in a very strong first person narrative.

Kate takes us on a journey through her life, starting from her early days as an orphan.

We follow her as she wanders as a young woman and into her adulthood.

Her constant search for belonging and home leads her down numerous side roads and into fascinating relationships.

Price is a gifted writer who truly knows his character.

He depicts Kate's strong character not only through her words but also through her actions.

The use of foreshadowing and direct address to the reader make this a very engaging read.

It keeps us on the edge of our seats, eager to know what will happen next in Kate's life.

We become invested in her story and root for her as she navigates the challenges and joys that come her way.

Overall, Kate Vaiden is a captivating novel that offers a unique perspective on life and the search for identity.

There's an abundance of unspoken elements and yet they are constantly alluded to, to the extent that I thought I might have dozed off during certain parts while reading. The voice employed is interesting enough to maintain my interest initially. However, I simply couldn't establish a connection with the plot. It's rather funny that coincidentally, I was reading Barbara Kingsolver's "High Tide in Tucson" simultaneously with this, only to stumble upon this sentence in one of her essays: "My favorite fictional character, Kate Vaiden (in the novel by Reynolds Price), advises: 'Strength just comes in one brand--you stand up at sunrise and meet what they send you and keep your hair combed.'" This unexpected parallel added an extra layer of complexity to my reading experience.

It made me wonder if there was some deeper meaning or message that I was missing in the text I was currently engaged with. Maybe the lack of connection I felt with the plot was a sign that I needed to look beyond the surface and consider the unspoken elements more closely. Or perhaps it was just a case of personal preference and the story simply didn't resonate with me on an emotional level.

Kate Vaiden by Reynolds Price is a first-person narrative that delves into the tumultuous life of Kate Vaiden. The story begins with Kate in her late fifties, looking back on her life. At the age of eleven, she loses both her parents in a murder-suicide, and is then raised by her loving aunt and uncle in Macon, North Carolina.

Kate's life takes a series of unexpected turns. She has her first sexual encounter with a young man who later dies in a military training camp during the Vietnam War. At sixteen, she gets pregnant and runs away, beginning a pattern of attachments and abandonments. She seems to have no real direction in life, bouncing from one situation to another.

Despite her aimlessness, Kate always manages to attract men who desire her company. However, she flees from any form of commitment, leaving the reader confused and frustrated. As the story progresses, we see that Kate is an unlikable, selfish, and self-absorbed character. Her constant running away and haphazard choices make it difficult to sympathize with her.

Now that she is facing cancer, Kate tries to reconnect with the people in her past who loved her. But her belated concern seems self-serving and only emphasizes her selfishness. The novel was an okay read, but not something that I would highly recommend.

Kate Vaiden by Reynolds Price

At the beginning, she was a bit slow, but as time went by, she got better. She was a young orphan, her parents having died in a murder-suicide. She lived in the back country of North Carolina. Throughout her life, she had great difficulty in establishing and maintaining relationships. However, she had a rather unique way of dealing with men. She could use them and allow them to use her without feeling any remorse. It was as if she had built a wall around herself, protecting her from the pain and vulnerability that often come with true emotional connections. But deep down, perhaps there was a part of her that longed for something more genuine and meaningful, something that she had yet to discover or was afraid to pursue.

Kate Vaiden

For a long time, I had Reynolds Price's novel "Kate Vaiden" (1984) on my mind. It was only after being persuaded by an online review written by a friend that I finally decided to read it. I proposed the book to my reading group as a possible choice among several others, each of which portrayed an individual American woman. However, the group chose a different book. Nevertheless, I went ahead and read "Kate Vaiden" (the last name rhymes with "maiden") on my own.

This novel is quite unusual as Price sets it in the first person in the voice of his primary female character. Novels where the author writes in the voice of a person of the other gender are both challenging and rare. Some recent examples of women writing in the voices of men are Siri Hustvedt's "What I Loved" and Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer-prize winning "Gilead".

Some reviewers have questioned whether Price (1933 -2011) has the understanding and novelistic skill to project himself effectively into the voice of a woman. But Kate is truly her own person and an individual character. As a 17-year-old young woman, she abandons her baby son conceived out of wedlock. Price spends a significant portion of the novel preparing the reader for this event. I believed he made Kate's behavior understandable and believable. As the story advanced, I became completely absorbed in Kate and her travails. I felt for her as she made decisions, some of which were good while many were rash. The novel kept me deeply involved with the heroine and her world.

The novel is set in the rural upper South, specifically in North Carolina and Virginia. Much of the book takes place in Macon, North Carolina, where Price was born, with substantial parts set in Raleigh, Norfolk, Greensborough, and other locations. Most of the action occurs during the Depression and WW II era, with these large events contrasted against the quiet lives of individual rural people. The book progresses through the post-Vietnam era into the 1980s, touching on civil rights, feminism, the anti-war movement, and other major changes that took place over a relatively short time span.

The book is narrated by Kate Vaiden as a 57-year-old woman. She tells the story of her life, especially her tumultuous adolescence, hoping it will interest her 40-year-old son Dan. Kate abandoned Dan when she was 17 and, up until the time she writes her story, has had no contact with him. The novel is almost a picaresque one as young Kate moves around frequently and leaves behind a variety of people, including relatives, lovers, and friends. The novel is sad as Kate abandons many who truly want to offer her love, and Price makes the reader sympathize with both Kate and the others. Many of these individuals are themselves often lonely and searching. The novel is also a young woman's coming-of-age story. Abandonment, loss, and loneliness are important themes as many of the characters, including Kate, her mother, the father of her baby, Douglas, her would-be lover Whitfield, and others, are orphans. Many people close to Kate die in the book: her parents, her first lover, and Douglas.

Precocious sexuality is a prominent aspect of Kate's story. Her parents, Dan and Frances, have an apparently passionate but doomed relationship. After their shocking death, Kate, raised by her mother's sister Caroline and her husband Holt, begins a sexual relationship with a slightly older boy named Gaston who dies during Marine boot camp. Kate blames herself. The book includes vivid portrayals of this relationship that stays with Kate throughout her life. After Gaston's death, Kate is molested by her older cousin, Swift. She then starts a relationship with Douglas, an orphan who can be tender and loving but also has a tendency towards drifting and violence. Kate cannot bring herself to marry Douglas, who also meets a violent end. During the story, Kate has many other sexual relationships with men and friendships with women, but she allows them all to fade from her life. Price emphasizes the importance of marriage and commitment, aspects of life that are denied to Kate. Late in the novel, Kate has a conversation with a teacher, Rosalind Limer, who has unhappily remained unmarried throughout her life. Kate explains to Miss Limer her rejection of some of her suitors. Miss Limer observes:

"I won't try to judge what I didn't get to watch. But steadiness is what men seldom have to offer -- not in life anyhow, not in this green world. We're not promised that, in the Bible or any other book known to me."

Kate achieves a certain degree of financial security. She is an independent, tough, perceptive, yet vulnerable and highly fallible woman. I came to feel deeply for her through her mistakes and misfortunes. The book also offers a portrayal of small town life in the upper South in the years leading up to the Civil Rights Movement. Besides Kate, one of the characters that Price portrays effectively is Noony, an African American woman slightly older than Kate who works for Caroline and Holt. Noony provides her own commentary on Kate and her life. The novel is set against a backdrop of religious themes, including sin, redemption, and what appears to be God's ever-present love even in harsh circumstances. This is truly a stunning novel.

Robin Friedman

Reynolds Price was interviewed by Susan Ketchin for her remarkable book, "The Christ-Haunted Landscape: Faith and Doubt in Southern Fiction."

In this interview, he delved into the concept of "Christian Outlaws" or "believing outlaws," those who are "virtuous" or "saintly outlaws."

Referring to a character in another novel, Blue Calhoun, Price stated that although the character had engaged in a lot of bad and reckless behavior in his life, he was, at his core, an extremely good and careful person. He then added that he thought Kate Vaiden was similar in this regard.

This is a wonderful description of the title character in "Kate Vaiden," which has now become one of my new favorite books.

Kate is a complex, honest, and sometimes infuriating character, but ultimately, she is very human. She is an unforgettable character in a thoroughly unforgettable novel.

I truly wish I had discovered and read this book years ago.

It has the power to touch the reader's heart and make them think deeply about life, love, and faith.

I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys well-written, thought-provoking fiction.

I read Kate Vaiden 30 years ago and was immediately drawn to it. Recently, I came across a reference to both the book and Reynolds Price, which jogged my memory and made me decide to read it again. Since I no longer had the copy I had read before, I had to search for it in an old book store. To be honest, I couldn't recall most of the details of the story. However, as I delved back into it, I found myself completely captivated once more. This is truly a remarkable story that deserves 5 stars without a doubt. I'm already looking forward to reading it again in a few years. I can't help but wonder how my perspective and understanding of the book will change by then. So, I highly recommend that you read this book. You won't be disappointed.

Frankly speaking, I really can't figure out why this work won so many awards and received so much acclaim.

The main character in it was extremely idealized. She seemed to have no flaws or real personality. It was as if every man she encountered would instantly fall head over heels in love with her and abandon everything they were engaged in just to fulfill her every whim.

This kind of portrayal made the story extremely boring. There was no element of surprise or unpredictability. It was so obvious and foreseeable that it failed to capture my interest.

I expected something more complex and engaging, but unfortunately, this work did not meet my expectations.

I truly enjoyed this book. It had a profound impact on me.

From the very first page, I was captivated by the story and the characters. The author's writing style was engaging and vivid, making it easy for me to imagine the scenes and events as if I were there.

The book dealt with some deep and thought-provoking themes that made me reflect on my own life and values. It also had some unexpected twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read. It is a book that will stay with you long after you have finished reading it.

My favorite of all time!

This simple statement holds a world of meaning for me. It represents something that has had a profound impact on my life, something that I cherish above all else.

It could be a person, a place, a thing, or an experience. It could be a book that I have read countless times, a song that always makes me feel happy, or a movie that has touched my heart.

Whatever it is, it is a part of me and has shaped who I am today. It is a source of inspiration, motivation, and joy.

I will always remember it and hold it dear. It is my favorite of all time, and it will always be a special part of my life.

A winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, this is the painfully obvious story of the title character, Kate Vaiden. Reynolds Price, amongst his many academic accomplishments, holds a named chair as a professor at Duke.

My own digression here - his brief bio in the back of the book reads much more like a senior CV for someone applying for a prestigious position in order to inculcate the ignorant masses.

This is a well-wrought story written by the protagonist as a means of explanation to the son that she abandoned 40 years ago. It traces the tragedy of the life of Kate Vaiden. Set in the rural hinterlands (i.e. read backwater small town) of North Carolina, it gets going early with the double murder-suicide of her parents when she was 11. Further hardships follow, many of them bittersweet. Throughout the novel, Kate continues to struggle towards stability, only to erratically take flight without warning when it comes close. Ultimately, there are as many warm and hopeful aspects to this work as there are bitter losses.

I was particularly drawn to the countless imaginative (at least to a relatively urban Yankee) comparisons and similes, and Price has a writing style that is evocative and original. His use of language brings the story to life, making the reader feel as if they are right there with Kate, experiencing her joys and sorrows.

A deeply moving and enlightening study unfolds as we witness a woman's arduous struggle to bring her life into focus. Reynolds Price, with his remarkable literary prowess, showcases his sensitivity not only in understanding the human condition but also in delving into the spiritual realm. His contemplation of the good that resides within us all is truly profound. It makes us reflect on our own lives and the hidden virtues that lie dormant within. The story of this woman's journey serves as a powerful reminder that no matter how difficult life may seem, there is always a glimmer of hope and a source of goodness within us. Price's work invites us to look beyond the surface and discover the true essence of our being.