- Audio Cassette
- Publisher: Random House Audio; abridged edition edition (Nov 29 1989)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0394580443
- ISBN-13: 978-0394580449
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 11.4 x 1.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 150 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
As in the bestselling Homeplace , Siddons again depicts the demise of genteel Atlanta and its submergence in the Sunbelt culture while keeping the reader engrossed in a suspenseful tale featuring vividly portrayed characters. If sometimes her prose acquires melodramatic excess, Siddons is generally a gifted raconteur in the style of Pat Conroy, and her imaginative plot twists make this hefty novel an absorbing page-turner. From the sad vantage point of middle age, narrator Shepard Gibbs Bondurant III tells the story of his bewitchingly beautiful but manipulative, destructive cousin Lucy Bondurant Chastain Venable. Abandoned by her father and ignored by her cold, social-climbing mother, Lucy has an insatiable need for love and protection. She commands Shep's devotion and loyalty through her two doomed marriages even as her volatile behavior accelerates into madness. Meanwhile, she has destroyed Shep's relationship with Sarah Cameron, daughter of another socially prominent Atlanta family. Central to the novel is Siddons's portrayal of Atlanta's social elite, who live in the exclusive suburb called Buckland, epitomized by Peachtree Road. Her depiction of the young set, called Pinks and Jells, "the golden elect of an entire generation," is a cameo of social history. She is equally adroit in interpolating civil rights and other germane social issues into the plot. But it is as an accomplished story teller that Siddons makes her mark, pulling out all the emotional stops in a compulsively readable narrative. 50,000 first printing; $55,000 ad/promo; Troll Book Club main selection; author tour.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Compulsively readable". -- Washington Post
--This text refers to the
Mass Market Paperback
edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Siddons' Tour de Force,
This review is from: Peachtree Road (Mass Market Paperback)
I was so enchanted with this world: I suppose I'm a sucker for the upper classes, but even as I drooled over the lifestyle of the Buckhead Pinks and Gels, I could see the fear, sadness, tragedy, triumph all classes experience. I just enjoyed every description, every event, every person, and how how the story revolves around choices and consequences. I especially appreciated Siddons'effort to meaningfully portray mental illness, dysfunctional families, and love undone by selfishness. The treatment wasn't formula, characters and events often made you scratch your head, and that's the joy, to be surprised and tested by these people. Just a dynamite piece, this is something on which an author can rest her laurels.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Southern fiction at its best.,
By
This review is from: Peachtree Road (Mass Market Paperback)
Like only this author can be. Lucy and Shep Bondurant are cousins that are clearly headed on a path to destruction from the opening chapter of this book. When Lucy comes to live in the Atlanta house with Gibbs's family she takes his heart and breath away. From this meeting of two lonely children a strong lifelong bond grows, one that will go beyond words and even death. Siddons writes with a style of her own, beautiful, rambling, expressive prose that leaves you feeling the heat and charm of Atlanta and it's nobility. Her characters are not always likable but they are intensely human, making them more than just cardboard cut heroes and heroines. I enjoy the incredible way this author puts the reader in the scene. I have enjoyed several of this authors book's. My favorite, and the jewel in her crown, as my friend Rachel once put it, is COLONY a book that will warm your heart for years to come. Kelsana 5/26/02
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A big, juicy read with memorable characters!,
By
This review is from: Peachtree Road (Mass Market Paperback)
I have read this book at least three times so far, and whenever I see a copy of it in a used book store, I buy it so that I'll have extras to loan to my friends. It IS long, but you'll be surprised how fast the book goes. It's a fascinating study both of the Southern way of life and of a dysfunctional relationship -- well, there are actually many of those in the book, but I refer specifically to Shep's love/hate relationship with his cousin Lucy, a beautiful, smart, and self-destructive woman who is permanently scarred by her father's desertion (which is what brings Lucy, her siblings, and their mother to live with Shep and his parents). My only complaint about the book is that I felt Sarah was depicted as some sort of a saint, and I really didn't like her that much . . . Overall, this is a great book, and I can guarantee that you'll find yourself thinking back to the characters for a long time after reading it.
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