What do you think?
Rate this book
The Prick of Noon
Eddie Teeters is simultaneously pursued by three would-be wives and a federal agent who wants Eddie convicted on obscenity charges for his part in a series of explicit sex-counseling videotapes
Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
About the author
Peter De Vries
55 books166 followersPeter De Vries is responsible for contributing to the cultural vernacular such witticisms as "Nostalgia ain't what it used to be" and "Deep down, he's shallow." He was, according to Kingsley Amis, "the funniest serious writer to be found on either side of the Atlantic." “Quick with quips so droll and witty, so penetrating and precise that you almost don’t feel them piercing your pretensions, Peter De Vries was perhaps America’s best comic novelist not named Mark Twain. . .” (Sam McManis, Sacramento Bee).
His achievement seemed best appreciated by his fellow writers. Harper Lee, naming the great American writers, said, “Peter De Vries . . . is the Evelyn Waugh of our time". Anthony Burgess called De Vries “surely one of the great prose virtuosos of modern America.”
Peter De Vries was a radio actor in the 1930s, and editor for Poetry magazine from 1938 to 1944. During World War II he served in the U.S. Marines attaining the rank of Captain, and was seconded to the O.S.S., predecessor to the CIA.
He joined the staff of The New Yorker magazine at the insistence of James Thurber and worked there from 1944 to 1987. A prolific writer, De Vries wrote short stories, reviews, poetry, essays, a play, novellas, and twenty-three novels, several of which were made into films.
De Vries met his wife, Katinka Loeser, while at Poetry magazine. They married and moved to Westport, Connecticut, where they raised 4 children. The death of his 10-year-old daughter Emily from leukemia inspired The Blood of the Lamb, the most poignant and the most autobiographical of De Vries's novels.
In Westport, De Vries formed a lifelong friendship with the young J. D. Salinger, who later described the writing process as "opening a vein and bleeding onto the page." The two writers clearly "understood each other very well” (son Derek De Vries in "The Return of Peter De Vries", Westport Magazine, April 2006).
De Vries received an honorary degree in 1979 from Susquehanna University, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in May 1983.
His books were sadly out of print by the time of his death. After the New Yorker published a critical reappraisal of De Vries’ work however (“Few writers have understood literary comedy as well as De Vries, and few comic novelists have had his grasp of tragedy”), The University of Chicago Press began reissuing his works in 2005, starting with The Blood of the Lamb and Slouching Toward Kalamazoo.
His achievement seemed best appreciated by his fellow writers. Harper Lee, naming the great American writers, said, “Peter De Vries . . . is the Evelyn Waugh of our time". Anthony Burgess called De Vries “surely one of the great prose virtuosos of modern America.”
Peter De Vries was a radio actor in the 1930s, and editor for Poetry magazine from 1938 to 1944. During World War II he served in the U.S. Marines attaining the rank of Captain, and was seconded to the O.S.S., predecessor to the CIA.
He joined the staff of The New Yorker magazine at the insistence of James Thurber and worked there from 1944 to 1987. A prolific writer, De Vries wrote short stories, reviews, poetry, essays, a play, novellas, and twenty-three novels, several of which were made into films.
De Vries met his wife, Katinka Loeser, while at Poetry magazine. They married and moved to Westport, Connecticut, where they raised 4 children. The death of his 10-year-old daughter Emily from leukemia inspired The Blood of the Lamb, the most poignant and the most autobiographical of De Vries's novels.
In Westport, De Vries formed a lifelong friendship with the young J. D. Salinger, who later described the writing process as "opening a vein and bleeding onto the page." The two writers clearly "understood each other very well” (son Derek De Vries in "The Return of Peter De Vries", Westport Magazine, April 2006).
De Vries received an honorary degree in 1979 from Susquehanna University, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in May 1983.
His books were sadly out of print by the time of his death. After the New Yorker published a critical reappraisal of De Vries’ work however (“Few writers have understood literary comedy as well as De Vries, and few comic novelists have had his grasp of tragedy”), The University of Chicago Press began reissuing his works in 2005, starting with The Blood of the Lamb and Slouching Toward Kalamazoo.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 23, 2021
Did Peter DeVries ever write a bad book? Not that I've read and I've read most of what he's written.
August 4, 2021
*3.5 stars.
"Gladly would I have shown my knightly adoration right then and there by kneeling to kiss the hem of her skirt, but since she was wearing abbreviated tennis whites the resulting tableau would have got us both chucked out of the club with no question of refund" (5).
"...it slowed in a momentary traffic clot" (8).
“I was thus lollybasking (a word I’ve coined, how do you like it?) in the occasion…“ (34).
"...and necktie with well-behaved polka dots…" (46).
“Now here was a man nasty as the first two weeks in February” (80).
“…making my way along an overwrought iron fence…” (83).
"... which, the spoon dish being empty just then, he stirred with a ball point pen which he happened to be doing some budget figuring. I remember to this day is overturning the pen so as to muddle in the sugar and cream with the butt end, which seemed to me to strike a nice balance between indifference and discrimination. He was nothing if not fastidious" (96).
"...the waiter with perfect bad timing toddled over and refilled our wine glasses…" (117).
"'I'll sue them till they wish they'd never been founded in 1887'" (155). *Good one, Eddie!
"Gladly would I have shown my knightly adoration right then and there by kneeling to kiss the hem of her skirt, but since she was wearing abbreviated tennis whites the resulting tableau would have got us both chucked out of the club with no question of refund" (5).
"...it slowed in a momentary traffic clot" (8).
“I was thus lollybasking (a word I’ve coined, how do you like it?) in the occasion…“ (34).
"...and necktie with well-behaved polka dots…" (46).
“Now here was a man nasty as the first two weeks in February” (80).
“…making my way along an overwrought iron fence…” (83).
"... which, the spoon dish being empty just then, he stirred with a ball point pen which he happened to be doing some budget figuring. I remember to this day is overturning the pen so as to muddle in the sugar and cream with the butt end, which seemed to me to strike a nice balance between indifference and discrimination. He was nothing if not fastidious" (96).
"...the waiter with perfect bad timing toddled over and refilled our wine glasses…" (117).
"'I'll sue them till they wish they'd never been founded in 1887'" (155). *Good one, Eddie!
March 18, 2013
DeVries is a taste like Wodehouse. Plot doesn't matter much, narrator tends to be much the same, you don't give a hoot how it ends, but the writing, the wit are so damn good, it doesn't matter. It's like watching a very skillful magic act--you know there are tricks to it, but it's a hell of a good show. Comic writers can get away with this. Carl Hiassen, for example, seems to use a formula for his novels, but he has it down so perfectly you don't mind.
August 9, 2012
Amusing book. Another by Peter DeVries that I read because he was so well regarded as a humorist for the New Yorker in the 80s. I think it is too dated to play well now, but it was light and funny.
September 6, 2007
i own one but i never opened it
November 14, 2011
Not one of his best books, but still worth a read for its witty wordplay.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews