Not extraordinary, but enjoyable enough

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	• Peyton Place Grace Metalious Northeastern, 1999 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 59 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Banned where??

It is difficult to believe that this novel was so feared and defamed in its early printings. For the reader of today, it is tame, well constructed, and totally enjoyable. Try this as a book group selection; we had a great discussion. Pair it with her biography!

Not extraordinary, but enjoyable enough

After having heard references to this classic for many of my 26 years, I finally decided to give it a try...

As the story begins, Selena Cross and Allison Mackenzie are enjoying everything that comes along with being a fourteen-year-old in a small town of the 1940s. Peyton Place may have its kooky residents and its flaws, but it's also comfortingly familiar in its routines.

Unbeknownst to her, Allison's mother Constance is not a widow, but rather conceived her daughter during an affair in New York City. She runs the Thrifty Corner clothing shop and takes great pains to give Allison a proper upbringing. Meanwhile Selena, the stepdaughter of abusive alcoholic Lucas Cross, lives with her family in a one-room shack. Her mother Nellie cleans the Mackensies' home.

As they grow older, the girls drift apart, although they maintain closeness with one another's mothers. Allison dreams of becoming a great author, while Selena simply wants to live comfortably without fear of her stepfather.

One day, Selena decides Lucas has ruined her life long enough, and she takes matters into her own hands...which does just about as much to ruin her life in another way.

Allison, meanwhile, finally hits a goldmine with "Samuel's Castle" - a thinly disguised biography of Peyton's Place and its residents.

Tossed into the two young women's stories and the sideplots of various other Peyton Place notables are various sexual encounters, which no doubt served to make the book achieve notoriety during a time when such material was still risque. But from the viewpoint of a 21st century reader, there's nothing particularly memorable from that aspect.

Still, "Peyton Place" and its sequel are an intriguing read, written by a woman with a skill for realistic dialogue and a talent for describing small-town life...

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great book

What a great book!! The writing is fabulous!!! It's amazing what a "stir" it caused when it was first published years ago.

LIFE IN A QUIET TOWN

"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)

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A Great Piece of Pop Culture History

I read this book for a class I took on pop culture fiction and was pleasantly surprised. The book is set in a small New England town mysteriously called Peyton Place after a castle set high above the village. The book follows a wide array of the inhabitants of the town, from the upper crust that bring to mind images of southern gentlemen to the 'shack dwellers' straight out of hicksville, to the run of the mill guys and gals of the teenage set. The main message of course, is that nothing is ever quite as it seems...

With that in mind, the book is very much the predecessor to the soap operas of today. There are several main characters, but every character whether mentioned over a few scant pages or in every chapter, resonates in some way to the various climaxes sprinkled from start to finish. If you are a fan of soap operas, or even dramatic television, romantic novels, or chick lit, you'll find this book and its twisting and turning storylines extremely entertaining.

What the book is notorious for is its 'naughty bits', that were quite shocking for the time period it was written and distributed in (the 50's) and even moreso for the time period the book is set in (30's-50's). I can tell you the book doesn't disappoint in the sense that it is very willing to deal with sexuality and taboo subjects in a blunt matter - made even more interesting by the knowledge we have today of life for women in the 50's and 60's.

Overall this is a great book - there are far too many plot lines to delve into in a simple review like this, but you will not be disappointed if you are looking for a nice summer read or a engaging soapy page turner.

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reviews: 1, page 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

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