There's lots to dislike about this book. Main characters Shep (male cousin, narrator) and Lucy (repeatedly stated to be 2 years younger than Shep, moves in with Shep's wealthy family when her shiftless dad runs away)are selfish, incestuous, callous, co-dependent snobs. Lucy in particular is a delinquent. Because Shep wuvs her so, he repeatedly defends Lucy's decisions. He describes Lucy as NEVER deliberately cruel, on a day when pre-teen Lucy sneers that their friend with a leg brace* (from childhood polio) can't keep up on a bicycle ride. Because she taunts the crippled boy, he and everyone else follow her, determined to prove they are just as capable as Lcy. What are they capable of? Vandalizing an old mansion that they think is abandoned. They're not actually sure whether the reclusive old widow who left there has left town or not, but they chuck rocks at her house, break into it, and do thousands of dollars worth of property damage some time in the 1940's.I say "some time" because the author seldom uses actual dates, just says that X character is "___" years old when an event happens. But her math is terrible.The flashback/memoir starts with Shep remembering how he met Lucy and her younger siblings when they moved into his home at Peachtree Road. Shep was 7, Lucy was 5. No year given.When Lucy has lived with the family for a couple months or about a year, they hear on the radio that the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor. Alrighty then. Author doesn't list the date, but most people either learned in school or via Google that Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7th, 1941.So we can infer that Shep was likely born in 1934, and Lucy was born in 1936. Theoretically Shep could have been born in late December of 33, but the weather is/was mild on his birthday, so I doubt he was a winter baby. (Not surprisingly, looking up the author's birthdate reveals that Anne Rivers Siddons was born in 1936. Could "Lucy" be a thinly disguised Author Avatar? I hope not cause Lucy is a violent, hateful human being. I'll talk a bit on why Lucy's terrible in the SPOILERS section.)back to the math failShep receives a car for his 16th birthday. A Plymouth Fury with a red and white two-one paint job. The car is too flashy and Shep soon tires of driving it, gets a different vehicle later. Obviously a Stephen King/Christine shout-out. Problem is Furys were only made from 1956-1978. Gran Fury came later but that's also discontinued now. The Belvedere Fury was only made from 56-58 and you'd have to customize it to get the 'Christine' color scheme. Otherwise that model (2 door, hardtop coupe) would be beige and gold.To be 16 and get a Plymouth Belvedere Fury, the EARLIEST a person could be born is 1940.If Shep was born in 40, Lucy would be born in 42, and therefore Lucy could never have heard the original broadcast about Pearl Harbor, the kids wouldn't even meet until some time in 1947, when WWII was already officially over.My guess is the author just wanted a cool, iconic 50's car for Shep to use in high school, and never bothered to think that the cars available at the start of the decade (Jan, 1950) would not necessarily be the same as those available by the the decade's end (Dec, 1959).The whole timeline is confusing and full of historical and pop cultural inaccuracies. The boys in Shep's school wear pompadour hairstyles (which was more of a late 50's/early 60's fad) but the male narrator can't remember why his gang was called the Jells. His best guess? The Jells were colorful and vibrant, like jelly beans. Ffft, no. It was the hair gel stupid, that's why they also called it jelly rolls. I wasn't born until long after the 50's but I've watched Grease and I've read fashion encyclopedias. It ain't that hard to look these details up. Furthermore, Shep recalls seeing Frank Sinatra in Pal Joey during his HS years. That's 1957.Anyone who was in HS during 57 but ALSO recalls listening to the original Pearl Harbor news broadcast between 7-8 years of age must have failed several grades. 23 Skidoo shout not be your age or your graduation cry.SPOILERSAs for the main girl/love interest in the book, Lucy is terrifying and dangerously aggro. Srsly, this girl punches her baby brother and kid sister for trying to sit in a shady spot on the lawn, because she'd named the shady patch "Dumboozle Town, Florida" and wanted it to be just for her and Shep alone. Lucy punches the toddler Jamie, a boy not even 24 months old, and middle sibling Adelaide aka "Little Lady" was between 4-5 years old. Little Lady survives with some cuts and bruises. Jamie hits his head after being pummeled by Lucy's fists, is unable to cry out or speak properly after that, family minus Lucy and Shep takes Jamie to the hospital, he dies. Shep's Mom aka Lucy's Aunt grounds them but tells the kids not to blame themselves as Jamie died of infantile paralysis/polio although the symptoms described in the book makes it sound more like complications from his head injury was the actual cause of death. Considering the family issues a "quarantine" that is broken less than a week later, polio as COD seems unlikely.Lucy is able to manipulate Jamie's death to suit her own purposes. She breaks curfew, steals from her Mom's purse ~while the mother that Lucy hates so much was volunteering at a Red Cross canteen, still reeling from the death/burial of Jamie but wanting to do her part for the war effort. Yeah, this is the kind of skewed sympathies book where the honest, hard-working Mom is labeled SO MEAN and the disobedient, petulant daughter is punished for no reason, waaah!~Lucy then kidnaps Little Lady, shoves her in a too small stroller, calls a taxi, and goes to the Greyhound Station, where she purchases 2 tickets to Louisiana, a state she lived in once.When the police track her down, Lucy lies that she was only trying to send her sister somewhere safe from polio, didn't mean to be bad, boo-hoo. The Rich Uncle swallows the lie and forgives her, the grounding or "quarantine" ends. Lucy then confesses to Shep that she only wanted to send Adelaide away because she's a dumb crybaby and that if both Jamie and Adelaide were gone her father would come back.I'd have more sympathy for Lucy's abandonment issues/daddy complex if she wasn't also a lying, manipulative, bossy, brat, who shows zero remorse about punching people and sheds NO tears when her baby sibling died. I ain't even touching the incestuous romance that Shep and Lucy develop. 50 Shades of DO NOT WANT. Go back to Flowers In The Attic, y'all.
This book is largely set in Buckhead, where I used to live (1948-1956) and went to school (North Fulton HS 1948-1950). She defines (p.23) Buckhead as stretching from Peachtree Creek on the south to West Paces Ferry Road on the north, from Northside Drive on the west to Peachtree Road on the east. My sense was that it went further east than just Peachtree Road. She gives it an area of some 4 square miles. She mentions Crawford-Long Hospital, where my first child was born. In 1907 the first trolley line was laid down from downtown Atlanta to Buckhead. Jim Dickey wrote a poem about “The Buckhead Boys.” (p.32), and was supposedly one himself. Buckhead is called Buckhead because in 1838 a man named Hardy Ivy mounted the head of a buck on a tree over his tavern and crossroads store (p.34). E. Rivers School is first mentioned on page 57. Another link to my own childhood is the presence of polio, which kills Lucy’s little baby brother. The author says (p. 120) that in any family group there is a natural scapegoat. The narrator goes to NFHS (p. 142). The terms Pinks and Jells is discussed on p. 147, and the term Cocksman is used on p. 148. The author uses the term, Great American Nooky Quest, at the bottom of p. 157. The Varsity’s Flossie May is mentioned on p. 183 (I have heard him chant/sing the Varsity menu many times). The narrator graduated from Princeton in 1958 (p. 250). On p. 254 is the emotional high point (so far) of the book: Sarah says to Shep as she is boarding the plane from NY (where she had been visiting him) to Atlanta: Don’t come home. If you come home, it will be to her (meaning Lucy). The author misjudges Kennedy vs. Nixon debate on p. 274. At the top of p. 278, she refers to Army Rangers as “murderous peers.” The narrator’s mother is killed on a plane crash with a group of members of the Atlanta Art Association (p.397), who were touring the art galleries and museums of Europe. The plane crashed while taking off from Orly. This is the crash that killed the mother of my HS friend Ralph Barry (who’s picture is on p. G-37 of my book). Tragedies, misfortune, and early deaths strike the friends and relatives of the narrator (Shep Bondurant), seemingly far more than the average person. He tells his best friend and 1st cousin Lucy Bondurant to take the gun she is holding (and with which she shot her husband) and shoot herself – and she does. The ending of the book is written in such an obtuse (to me) manner, that I had trouble interpreting what it meant. Was he committing suicide, merely jumping into the Chattahoochee, or just having a dream or vision? Pat Stacy thinks he was definitely killing himself. I suspect that she is correct, especially considering the negativity and pessimism inherent in the entire book. This is mirrored in Shep’s sadness about the transformation of Atlanta from an idyllic, sleepy Southern town into a commercial big city. Ms. Siddons writes beautifully and with fine imagery in describing the personalities and psychologies of her characters. She makes a huge gaff (I didn’t write down the page #) in referring to the county as “North Fulton County,” unless of course it has been re-districted since I lived there. In giving this a rating, I have trouble separating out the personal interest I have in the specific locale of the book. Without that, I would probably only give it a 5, given the unremittingly joyless sadness inherent in the work. Since the rating is my own personal rating, I will give it an 8.
What do You think about Peachtree Road (1998)?
As an Atlanta resident, I enjoyed this beautifully written book full of vivid depictions of old Buckhead money and the gentrification of the area. The story of Shep and Lucy and the aging of the young Buckhead crowd takes place alongside the changing Atlanta landscape. The lush and secluded mansions are soon surrounded by towering skyscrapers and foreigners and outsiders take over Buckhead's upper crust. Lucy is a character I wanted to hate but she seems so tortured inside that I can't help pity her as well. As a loner who lingers on the fringes of the old money crowd in Buckhead, Shep Bondurant's growth from a meek young boy into a aging hermit is filled with forbidden love, regrets, and neverending surprises. I loved Gone with the Wind and I think any Margaret Mitchell fan would be quite taken with Anne Rivers Siddons style.
—Cindy
Oh my gosh y'all, I am so sorry to everyone who has ever tried to get me to read this author, but I can't, I just can't. This is my second attempt, I tried to read Low Country about 10 years ago and it just did me in with the verbal diarrhea. Still, people whose literary opinions I like and tend to agree kept telling me how great she is and how I should really read her novels. So I made a valiant effort, but oh my Lord have mercy, why use one word when 2000 will do? The first 150 pages could have probably been condensed down to 15. I am not above liking some florid descriptions of cities and homes and people, but good gravy, there's a time when you have to stop beating the reader over the head with your $.50 adjectives and get on with the story. I soldiered on to my self imposed halfway mark. I surrender. Anne Rivers Siddons and I are just never going to get along.
—Minty McBunny
I gave this book 2 stars only because it read well. It was the most horrible story line I have ever read. Depressing morbid lack of hope. Good characters that should have a lot going for them and the author just spins out nothing. It was sad on so many levels. I love Southern literature. The good old southern towns that speak of the old elegance and grace and etiquette and this book had all the ingredients for that but somehow came out with terrible tasting disturbing grossness instead. It started out incredibly slow to begin with and then developed its characters in a very detailed loving fashion. But what It did with those characters was horrible and bleak and gray and depressing. I had started it a while back and put it down and then picked it back up and was determined to finish it hoping that the ending would make up for it, but it didn't. Maybe this book has an aura about it that people enjoy but I am not from that dark underworld. It left me feeling like I was covered in scum. It was gritty. (and when I say dark underworld or horrible it's not a horror story or scary in anyway it is just depressing on the psychological level)
—Jessica McArthur
