Feasting the Heart: Fifty-Two Commentaries for the Air

by Reynolds Price

Book Overview

Ranging from his experiences as a writer to topics of faith and racial intolerance, Reynolds Price's stories from National Public Radio's All Things Considered showcase the author's consistent talent... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743203690
• ISBN13: 9780743203692
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

A Rich Treat

Ready. Set. Go. We live in a lightning fast world where tweeting and instant messaging are all the rage. If it takes more than 140 characters to make your point, you will likely lose your audience. Reynolds Price was not tweeting in Feasting the Heart, but he wastes neither time nor words in connecting with his readers. He begins his chapter "A Motto" by saying, "No one I know has a motto these days" to which I immediately responded with affirmation. I wanted to know where he was going. Several hundred words later, Price introduces one of his mentors and the sage advice he received. The other 51 essays are equally artful and insightful. They provoke the imagination and engage the readers in personal stories which are substantive and meaningful. Price's essays are a rich treat on which to feed.

A book I treasure

I'd read Reynolds Price's autobiographical A Whole New Life a year or so ago. That book, about his long battle with spinal cancer, impressed me with the man's courage, honesty, and depth of insight. When I saw Feasting the Heart, I grabbed it instantly and read most of it the same night. Jacques Maritain said once that truly creative people go deeper and deeper into an inner silence and extract everything the Source there has to give them, until finally their own heart is used up. I thought of Price when I read that. Not many modern writers struggle so hard with their own sense of integrity or go so deep they would ever risk using up their own hearts. Price does, and I always leave his books feeling that I have feasted my own heart. This collection is a treasure.

Getting It Right.

In "The Last Great Weeper" from this collection of essays Reynolds Price says that he often cries these days when somebody gets something right-- a flawless dive from Greg Louganis and a perfect A above middle C from Leontyne Price. The same could be said of most of these fifty-two commentaries from National Public Radio: he gets it right. Mr. Price has opinions on most subjects and certainly doesn't hesitate to express them. Even when some of his subjects do not particularly interest me, I as always feast on Mr. Price's language. There's something for almost everyone here. I was moved by his essay called "Wheelchair Travel," and also liked "The Great Imagination Heist," where he laments the evils of TV exposure on today's students, and "Private Worship." Mr. Price avoids the typical white church in America today which he describes as "The church as country club" and, like Emily Dickinson, keeps the Sabbath staying at home. Sound familiar?

Horace, not Homer

I'm really writing this because I have to respond to the reviewer who thinks the title comes from Homer. Reynolds Price wrote and read about the two lines that give the title of this collection. He cites the Latin poet, Horace and says that the English poet, A.E. Houseman translated the poem. It is beautiful but Price writes beautifully also. I like the first novel the best, I think.

Gemlike

It isn't easy to cover important topics briefly, deeply, and well. Price makes it seem easy. His topics are consistently interesting. You will never check your watch. Somehow he distills the feel and the details of an event, a remembered feeling, place, or thing, and the results are completely satisfying. He is kind, even courtly toward his reader/listener. You sense that he is good at relationships (family and friendship) - and at telling an utterly fresh and original story. In "Wheelchair Travel," a very large topic is explored - in around 600 words. "Father and History" covers a father's effect on his son, again, in brief - but deeply.These short essays are great examples of how to write. In addition, there is a refreshing absence of curmudgeonliness, an attitude which (outside of nature writing) seems to dominate the field of short essay-writing, lately.