Plain and Normal: A Novel [Paperback]

James Wilcox (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 1999

Lloyd Norris is slouching towards middle age. Recently out of the closet, he knows it's time to devote himself to finding the love & companionship that have long eluded him. But his search is complicated & the result is a dizzyingly funny book about the awesome power of our need for connection.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The paunchy, earnest 43-year-old Severinus Lloyd Norris strives for a life of stasis amidst an emergent midlife crisis brought on less by age than by the people in his life. Pearl May, his beautiful wife of over 20 years, has just divorced him and has been encouraging Lloyd to come out of the closet and, eventually, out of their shared home in Yonkers. His attempts at being a volunteer companion to the elderly for Manhattan Cares are foiled when his clients reject him for being too boring. His boss, Ms. Vigoris, can't get him to gracefully accept a promotion at the label and logo company, one that should have come years before. Even the man Lloyd desires can't make a successful pass at him.

Lloyd fights with all his heart to live a plain and normal life, yet with his supporting cast of characters, he doesn't stand a chance. There's an ex-lesbian Christian widowed meter reader turned synchronized swimming coach; an overbearing, incompetent secretary with distant ties to Dutch royalty--whose eccentric fiancé happens to be in love with Lloyd; a power-hungry former boss who guilts his way into Lloyd's personal life in an effort to sleep with Pearl May; not to mention the Jesuit priest eager to fix Lloyd up with his cousin. Although Plain and Normal, Wilcox's seventh novel, may not dissuade longtime fans from their preference for earlier works like Modern Baptists, this satiric romp on the pains of growing older may attract new readers to one of the late 20th century's smartest comic novelists. --Kera Bolonik --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

A "plain and normal" life is the wistful wish of Severinus Lloyd Norris, the protagonist of Wilcox's appealing new novel. Like the lovable eccentrics of Modern Baptists and Sort of Rich, Lloyd grew up in Tula Springs, La., where he married pregnant Pearl Fay when they were both high-school seniors. Pearl Fay lost the baby? just as well, since Lloyd was not the father. Pearl Fay knew from the beginning that Lloyd was gay, but it was only when she wanted a divorce to marry someone else that she forced him to come out of the closet. Now Lloyd is back living with his ex in Yonkers, where she hectors him to be more forthright about his sexuality and he commutes to his job as a computer programming executive in New York, where he is afraid that he'll be fired if he comes out. In fact, at 43, bald, timid, overpolite Lloyd (always called "Mr. Norris" by Wilcox, although the other characters are identified by their given names) has yet to find a male lover. Lloyd's search for romance, as well as his reluctant advance up the corporate ladder and his efforts to placate his spastic colon, occasion genuine humor. Other comic scenarios are not as successful, for Wilcox advances the plot through a series of misunderstandings and farcical confrontations, all of which give the characters a chance to proclaim either their approval of homosexuality or their homophobic prejudices; in every case, however, "doormat" Lloyd turns out to be the victim of their manic approval or intolerance. While Wilcox's humor is affectionate, the cast of supporting characters are almost uniformly self-centered, obtuse, manipulative and devious. It's as if in moving his characters from Tula Springs to Manhattan, Wilcox has endowed them with a hard edge that makes them far less appealing than their precursors. In the end, this novel is a comedy of errors that tickles the funnybone but fails to tug at the heartstrings in the way that Wilcox's fans have come to expect. Agent, Amanda Urban; editor, Rick Kot.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (September 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316941352
• ISBN-13: 978-0316941358
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #508,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful. Absolutely delightful!, August 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Plain and Normal (Hardcover)

I started John Grisham's "The Partners" and put it aside for Ellen Douglas'(the best of writers) "Can't Quit You, Baby"; then put it aside until I could read, nonstop, James Wilcox's "Plain and Normal".

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious!, October 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Plain and Normal (Hardcover)

This book made me order James Wilcox's other books. I particularly liked Pearl Fay Norris who tries to make her "husband" (whom she never has had sex with) come out of the closet and be more gay. I will anxiously await more books from this terrific writer.

5.0 out of 5 stars I love Lloyd, September 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Plain and Normal (Hardcover)

There should be more literary characters like Lloyd. He is funny and eccentric (he lives on chips--how can you NOT love him)!!! Plain and Normal also demonstates the old notion that things aren't always as they seem. If you like to laugh and you enjoy good literature, then get this book.