Title: Kate Vaiden: Drag Queen
Product review: While I would never assume that a man couldn't write in a woman's voice, Kate Vaiden sorely tempts my judgment. Reynolds Price tries to capture the female voice and consciousness of his narrator Kate and fails wildly. Kate is so laughably unconvincing that I thought perhaps I had misread it. However, when I showed the book to several other women, they all agreed. Kate is so clearly what a man envisions a woman to be (and so clearly NOT a woman), that I'm tempted to call the book a post-modern attempt at drag, and badly done at that. While there is some nicely honed prose, the story itself relies too much on contrived plot twists and thoroughly sentimental epiphanies. The dull story aside, the real interest lies in Kate's voice. Like a poorly rehearsed ventriloquist act, Kate Vaiden betrays its author's voice and bizarre conceptions of feminity again and again, transforming the novel from unintentional parody into high comedy.
Would you say this review depicts the product in a flattering or unflattering light?
