Yes, I have to agree with The Baltimore Sun's report that Peachtree Road was a love story, a historical novel, a mystery, and a tragedy all wrapped into one. I love historical fiction, but the main character/narrator's observations of his cousin Lucy just absolutely grated on me.
350 pages in, I neither like the characters, nor the direction in which the story is going, nor the melodramatic Georgian soap opera it's becoming, and I'm calling it quits.The first time I picked up this book, I put it down after about 20 pages because I just couldn't get into it. I have re-read it many times over the years, and just finished reading it again. What steps do they each take to insure their own protection? etc. Lucy and her shy older cousin, Sheppard Gibbs Bondurant III, instantly forge a tight, obsessive bond with one another that will leave a trail of ruin and misery in its path. I got about 1/3 through the story and stopped not long after Lucy taunts/dares her cousin to do something that she KNOWS he is deadly terrified of (heights) and that just really illustrated what kind of a cunt Lucy was.I'll probably catch flack for this review, but here goes. Peachtree Road - 1st Edition/1st Printing by Siddons, Anne Rivers Seller Books Tell You Why, Inc. Everytime I drive Peachtree Road in Buckhead I glance over at the last mansion and think about this great book.This book is largely set in Buckhead, where I used to live (1948-1956) and went to school (North Fulton HS 1948-1950). Right before starting Peachtree Road, I read Nora, Nora: A Novel. The plot was interesting, but it was a challenge to get through this book and quite depressing at times.
I found it way too wordy and just couldn't imagine getting through the 600+ pages, so I put it down. Shep, the narrator of PEACHTREE ROAD, cannot imagine life without her.
The author misjudges Kennedy vs. Nixon debate on p. 274.
I understand she was meant to be the focus of the book, but at one point it just really dragged out and I just wanted it to end. Set amidst the grandeur of Old Southern aristocracy, here is a novel that chronicles the turbulent changes of a great city--Atlanta--and tells the story of love and hate between a man and a woman. This books publish date is Mar 18, 2008 and it has a suggested retail price of $15.99.
All ends happily I think but the ending seemed ambiguous to me. Downtown is, yet again, another Anne Rivers Siddons classic. Again and again it triggered stories about my grandfather. 350 pages in, I neither like the characters, nor the direction in which the story is going, nor This wasn't terrible, it was just terribly long-winded.
I think he captured the mood of the time.For Lee, Kemble, Rick and David. by HarperTorch The ultimate plot may remind you of V.C. It's great! If you come home, it will be to her (meaning Lucy). "At Auburn, and before that when I wrote local columns for the Fairburn paper, writing came so naturally that I didn't value it. 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. My sense was that it went further east than just Peachtree Road.
Who was more successful, and why? Just finished reading this book and am amazed I managed to make it to the end... although the book generally sucked me in with descriptions of the South and Atlanta over the course of a few decades, the plot itself became increasingly frustrating. Those first two hundred pages are just so redolent of a lost era; one that happened before I was born, but I heard about from my parents who grew up in the same time, just considerably further north. Book Summary: The title of this book is Peachtree Road and it was written by Anne Rivers Siddons. In my mind, she's incapable of writing anything less.
Reissue.A sad, dark novel of family dysfunction, domestic violence, and insanity in a well-bred Southern family of the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia spanning from the early 1950s to the 1970s and 80s.Phew! Peachtree Road is a sweeping Southern magnum opus, centering around Old Atlanta and Buckhead.
Right before starting Peachtree Road, I read Nora, Nora: A Novel. Growing up together in a sprawling home on Atlanta's Peachtree Road, these two will be united by fierce love and hate, and by rebellion against the narrow aristocratic society into which they were born. 8. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our In Atlanta, Georgia, Lucy Bondurant, a spirited beauty who refuses to conform to the demands of Southern society, and her cousin, shy and quiet Gibbs Bondurant, are joined by their defiance against the constraints of aristocratic society. A big disappointment from an otherwise great author.I couldn't stop reading this book. I still enjoyed the world that Siddons created and several of the characters, but I was just frustrated with the overall plot.. others have seemed to enjoy it, so it’s really just a matter of opinion. What price did each of them pay for their adaptation? I loved the main supporting characters of Sarah, Charlie, Ben, Jack, Little Lady and even Jack’s forbidding parents and Lucy’s social climbing trash mother.
Loved the characters in this book. He saw Sarah and she saved him. 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. Growing up, she did what was expected of her: getting straight A's, becoming head cheerleader, the homecoming queen, and then Centennial Queen of Fairburn. If Peachtree Road is anything, it is extremely well written.