Peyton Place (Hardscrabble Books-Fiction of New England) by Grace Metalious Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Peyton Place (Hardscrabble Books-Fiction of New England)
Book Review: Jackie Collins, eat your heart out!
Summary: 4 Stars
Peyton Place, a landmark of a book. Most people are familiar with at least the name and core concept of gossipy small town folks and their scandals, even if they aren't aware of the novel's existence.
The book covers roughly ten years in the life of an isolated, sleepy New England town from 1935 to 1945. There is no single central character. Instead, the book follows the intricate web between a large number of Peyton Place's residents and the back-biting, bad mouthing and general hypocrisy that runs rampant through the town.
The book is much better written than I was expecting. It is rich in incidental details, showing an intimate portrait of an isolated New England town in the late 1930's. Some of my favorite parts were throwaway details about ringing the bells for school or the old men sitting on the wooden benches in front of the court house. Peyton Place itself is probably the most prominent character in the book. Often Metalious uses quotes from unnamed characters to act as the `voice' of Peyton Place.
Regardless, the book is not literary fiction. Rather, it revels in titillating details. I noticed over the course of the book that the narrative tended to wallow in the more salacious bits. At first, shocking secrets are presented pretty matter-of-factly. I got the feeling that the author felt more and more comfortable with her narrative as she wrote, because while the soap opera-like twists were always pretty breathtaking, as the story wound on they were presented more and more sensationally. I have to admit, it really did make the book more fun to read. Who doesn't like tut-tutting over other folk's dirty laundry?
I do think that the book is a cut above Jackie Collins/Danielle Steele trash fiction though. While Metalious crammed Peyton Place with enough hot details to fill an issue of the National Enquirer, she was also very clear in pointing out the hypocrisy in the way that New England was presenting itself to the rest of the country back then. The book was clearly at least semi-autobiographical (as the character Allison MacKenzie seems to closely resemble the author) and you can see that as gleeful as the author was in dragging out scandal of the place, she clearly had some fondness for her roots.
Lots of bad stuff happens in Peyton Place, but it is not all bad. There are still picnics in the woods, drowsy Indian summer days and townspeople helping each other out.
Whatever reputation it earned when originally published, the book is some kind of classic now. Fifty-plus years later, the book still holds a reader's interest. It is unquestionably dated, but it is a novel portraying a particular time and place, so that is not a strike against it. The only reason I didn't rate this one at five stars is that some of the dialog is stilted (though some of it is fantastic) and I felt toward the end that the story was getting a little long in the tooth.
All these years after the original publication of Peyton Place I was still often shocked while reading. The novel really does go for the sensational. But like Jean Shepherd's purposely `anti-nostalgic' reminiscences or the movie Pleasantville, it also tries to make you see that maybe the 'good old days' weren't so good for those that lived them.
Book Review: LIFE IN A QUIET TOWN
Summary: 5 Stars
"Rodney Harrington, wearing a white jacket and with curly black hair well slicked down with water, sat on the edge of a chair in the Mckenzie living room. Constance had left him there while she went upstairs to see if Allison was ready, and now Rodney sat and stared morosely at the braided rug on the floor."
Thanks to Grace Metalious and Ardis Cameron we can now enjoy this book in print once again.
Peyton Place was one of the soap operas nobody wanted to miss when it was on televison. It was for this reason that I drew this book out to indulge in a bit of nostalgia.
It was a wonderful read with all our favourite characters, I could hardly put it down for too long. Hope others find that joy that I did reliving Peyton Place.
Reviewed by Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 11/04/07)
Book Review: Loved it!
Summary: 5 Stars
Given that I'd always heard the term "Peyton Place" used to denote something trashy, gossipy and small minded, I'd expected this book to live down to it's reputation. In short, I'd expected 'mind candy.' But I was wonderfully surprised to find in this book so much more than fluff! It's a well crafted story that never disappoints with trite writing or expected paths. There's a reason PEYTON PLACE was so successful in its day - and it's not because readers ate up 'trashy' content. It's because the author handles with intelligence, depth and courage (given the time it was written) so many meaningful issues - social class, sex, incest, rape, abortion, self loathing, just to name a few.
What a great read!
Book Review: More than just a soap opera
Summary: 5 Stars
When it was released in 1956, PEYTON PLACE, the debut novel by French Canadian Grace Metalious, caused quite a stir. Since its release, "Peyton Place" has entered American vocabulary as a term for something scandalous, and after reading the novel, it's easy to see why it is still well-known by readers of all ages today.
The novel chronicles the goings-on in a small New England town called Peyton Place (incidentally, named for a former slave). Peyton Place is a town of exactly 3675 individuals, where old men sit on wooden benches in front of the courthouse and the streets are all named for deciduous trees. There are three churches--one for the Protestants, one for the Catholics, and one for the "fire and brimstone" worshippers. Metalious' novel begins in Indian summer, with a detailed description of the town's layout--and, of course, the picture I formed of Peyton Place in my head looked a lot like those calendars you see with photographs of New England in autumn.
Of course, I didn't have to read too much of the novel to realize that this was Metalious' intention, and that New England was the perfect locale for her scandalous, brave story.
In PEYTON PLACE, readers soon learn, things are not as perfect as they appear. Underneath the peacefulness of the town lies a world of secret scandal. This novel is one with many protagonists, from the noble town doctor Matthew Swain to Constance MacKenzie, a seamstress desperate to hide her shady past. Through Metalious' omniscient narrative voice, readers are privy to a bevy of the townspeople's secrets, from the daily enemas given to Little Norman Page by his mother, to the child abuse of the worst kind occurrring in the Cross shack across town. Metalious tackles issues in PEYTON PLACE that are still relevant today: abortion, child abuse, physical and sexual mistreatment, alcoholism, infidelity, murder.
But don't let my description of the novel mislead you: PEYTON PLACE is no soap opera on paper. Metalious' discussions of these controversial issues are deftly rendered, sympathetically written; it is clear she was trying to do more with her tale than produce a piece of writing that was indecent for indecency's sake. The sex scenes, for instance, are written so differently from the rest of the novel that it's obvious Metalious was making a point about the course of women's fiction in the '50s. Her characters are a delight to discover; this novel, despite some opinions to the contrary, is actually well-written. The novel's heartwrenching, serious discussion of issues that other novelists of the time dared not touch, as well as its social commentary that is still relevant today, will secure it a place as one of America's most groundbreaking novels far into the future.
Book Review: My Book,
Summary: 5 Stars
Hi; I received the book in excellent condition! And Am enjoying reading it. Thank You sooo much. I will always chose Amazon's sellers to purchase my books and things.