Noble Norfleet: A Novel

"And whether my story is a comedy, farce, or tragedy is a decision I'll leave to you if you care enough to make it," writes Reynolds Price near the close of his strange and epic novel Noble Norfleet, the prolific author's 34th published book in 40 years. Price toys with his readers when he writes the above quote, because the story of a Carolina boy whose insane mother murders her two youngest children in their sleep with an ice axe is, at its core, a Southern-fried epic. In this part coming-of-age drama (with many sexual misadventures described from inside the head of a hot-blooded male) and part tragic family saga, Noble emerges as an observer to his own life with few clues as to his survival. Hurtled from the sudden trauma of losing his younger siblings at age 17 to serving time in the tunnels as a medic in Vietnam, Noble seemingly chooses each new installment of his story as it flashes into his head spontaneously. He's no Forrest Gump, but between his bouts of resignation and his yearning for a mother who hardly remembers his name, Noble is a character in constant opposition, as scarred and as malleable as the South itself. --Emily Russin