Peyton Place (Hardscrabble Books-Fiction of New England)
by Grace Metalious
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Book Summary Information
Author: Grace MetaliousContributor: Ardis Cameron
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-03-04
ISBN: 1555534007
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Northeastern
Book Reviews of Peyton Place (Hardscrabble Books-Fiction of New England)
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.
Summary of Peyton Place (Hardscrabble Books-Fiction of New England)
When Grace Metalious's debut novel about the dark underside of a small, respectable New England town was published in 1956, it quickly soared to the top of the bestseller lists. A landmark in twentieth-century American popular culture, Peyton Place spawned a successful feature film and a long-running television series-the first prime-time soap opera.Contemporary readers of Peyton Place will be captivated by its vivid characters, earthy prose, and shocking incidents. Through her riveting, uninhibited narrative, Metalious skillfully exposes the intricate social anatomy of a small community, examining the lives of its people -- their passions and vices, their ambitions and defeats, their passivity or violence, their secret hopes and kindnesses, their cohesiveness and rigidity, their struggles, and often their courage.
This new paperback edition of Peyton Place features an insightful introduction by Ardis Cameron that thoroughly examines the novel's treatment of class, gender, race, ethnicity, and power, and considers the book's influential place in American and New England literary history.
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