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Plain and normal : a novel
Book
1998
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Fiction/Biography Profile
Characters
Lloyd Norris (Male), Computer programmer, Gay, Divorced, Bald; timid
Genre
Fiction
Humor
Topics
Homophobia
Misguided love
Setting
Yonkers, New York - Mid-Atlantic States
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Trade Reviews
Library Journal Review
This strange little character-driven book by the author of Guest of a Sinner (HarperCollins, 1995) is peopled by extremely eccentric, unappealing folk. Business exec Lloyd Norris has just come out of the closet and is looking for love. Having suppressed his natural desires for so many years, he's more than a tad shy. Lloyd's also terribly conflicted and mixed-up, forced to live with his harridan of an ex-wife (whom he married to save from shame in their backwater Southern town when they were high school classmates) so that a mere acquaintance, an impoverished co-worker who pays him no rent, can use his apartment. He's intimidated at work by his CEO, his incompetent supervisor, and his virago of a secretary and treated with disrespect by everyone he encounters. And if this isn't enough, his Catholicism warns him that homosexuality is a grave sin and he suffers from a spastic colon. An anti-hero, but only if you omit the "hero" part. Too many threads that lead to nowhere and a totally charmless, mostly unfunny story make for a hollow reading experience.‘Jo Manning, Richter, Univ. of Miami Lib., Coral Gables (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly Review
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. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Unrequited and misdirected loves are the ruefully comic matter of this sprightly seventh novel from the author of such inspired farces as Modern Baptists (1983) and Sort of Rich (1989). As often before, it's a denizen of Wilcox's likably deranged fictional hamlet of Tula Springs, Louisiana, who holds center stage. He's 40ish (Severinus) Lloyd Norris, now a New Yorker, working as a computer programmer for a company that manufactures labels for ``personal care products.'' ThatŽs only a minor eccentricity in a narrative merrily aboil with them. You see, Lloyd, who's recently divorced from his old schoolmate Pearl Fay (whom he married when a football player made her pregnant), has realized he's gay. This is of no great consequence to his ex (who urges him to find a boyfriend), Lloyd's macho boss, his aggressively motherly secretary, and the dozen or so others brought together by Lloyd's volunteer work for ``Manhattan Cares'' and his timid gropings toward a sex life (``all he did in the privacy of his bedroom was eat Fritos and sleep''). Lloyd is a charmingly winsome character, but his distant acquaintances (such as a depressed widower and his estranged octogenarian roommate), whose stories Wilcox pursues in skimpy counterpoint-narratives, never really hold our interest. The novel works best as a collection of riffs on sexual insanity (while permitting a female Žairhead'' model to share his apartment, Lloyd must deal with ugly rumors alleging he's not gay), with some delicious incidental comedy (e.g., Pearl Fay botches a suicide attempt by swallowing a handful of vitamin C tablets). Wilcox ends it all with a series of pairings and reconciliations that do tie up loose ends, but also have the surely unintended effect of emphasizing his story's narrative unevenness and chaotic structure. Almost as much of a mess as Lloyd Norris's modestly frenetic pursuit of happiness and normality. Fortunately, it's also very often almost as endearing and entertaining.
Summary
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.
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