THINGS THEMSELVES

by Reynolds Price ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 22, 1972

Another Price miscellany which has no special reason for being except Price's modest drawing power and no special interest save as an adjunct to his fully constituted works. With that much understood, however, these are not such meager pickings as reader or author (he guardedly calls them ""waiting tactics"" between bouts of novel-gauge inspiration) might have anticipated. They include critical readings of Faulkner, Milton and others in between; a screen-adapted section of A Long and Happy Life, reviews, and essays (Rembrandt, the Southern novel) -- all graciously written and bountiful within their limits -- along with happily willing considerations of his own work, noun and verb. If there is any quarrel it will probably have less to do with the selection than with Price's mild southern eloquence itself, and the vague contradictions it so neatly elides. In his alternate role as humane professor, he can make the ""terrors"" of poetry seem so appealing that one doesn't know whether to praise his poise or call his bluff.

Pub Date: May 22, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION