The Promise of Rest - Softcover

Price, Reynolds

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0684825104 ISBN 13: 9780684825106

Publisher: Scribner, 1996

Synopsis

In this stunning and fully independent conclusion to A Great Circle, Reynolds Price tells the complex, moving story of a man's return home to die of AIDS and of the unexpected effect that his arrival -- and his death -- has on his family.
Wade Mayfield's parents are separated, but for the remaining months of his life they and their friends come together to care for Wade with the love they can muster. They are unprepared, however, for the astonishing mystery Wade has prepared to reveal once he is gone -- a mystery that initiates the possible reunion of his parents and promises to continue the proud traditions of a complex, multiracial family.

About this title

From the Publisher

It is 1993 and Wade Mayfield is leaving New York City to return to his family's home in North Carolina where he will be cared for and tended by his parents, Ann and Hutch, as he dies of AIDS. In The Promise of Rest, death is never far away, and Ann and Hutch, now separated, must come together to care for their son in the last days of his life. Wade's quiet, yet stunning courage and strength cannot help but inspire them. After Wade's death, Ann and Hutch are astonished to discover Wade's secret -- a secret which leaves open the life-affirming possibility of continuing the Mayfield family, which seemed to have all but come to an end with Wade's death.

The Promise of Rest continues the unforgettable saga of the Mayfield family, chronicling the love among its members, their suffering, as well as their loyalty and duty to one another, while exploring the subjects of race and homosexuality. It is a rare and poignant novel about love and devotion, about death and dying, about dark times and the life that they can yield. With The Promise of Rest, Reynolds Price gives us another novel of tremendous emotional depth and extraordinary truth.

About the Author

Reynolds Price (1933-2011) was born in Macon, North Carolina. Educated at Duke University and, as a Rhodes Scholar, at Merton College, Oxford University, he taught at Duke beginning in 1958 and was the James B. Duke Professor of English at the time of his death. His first short stories, and many later ones, are published in his Collected Stories. A Long and Happy Life was published in 1962 and won the William Faulkner Award for a best first novel. Kate Vaiden was published in 1986 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Good Priest's Son in 2005 was his fourteenth novel. Among his thirty-seven volumes are further collections of fiction, poetry, plays, essays, and translations. Price is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and his work has been translated into seventeen languages.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0684825104
• ISBN 13: 9780684825106
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368