From Publishers Weekly
As in the bestselling Homeplace , Siddons again depicts the demise of genteel Atlanta and its submergence in the Sunbelt culture while keeping the reader engrossed in a suspenseful tale featuring vividly portrayed characters. If sometimes her prose acquires melodramatic excess, Siddons is generally a gifted raconteur in the style of Pat Conroy, and her imaginative plot twists make this hefty novel an absorbing page-turner. From the sad vantage point of middle age, narrator Shepard Gibbs Bondurant III tells the story of his bewitchingly beautiful but manipulative, destructive cousin Lucy Bondurant Chastain Venable. Abandoned by her father and ignored by her cold, social-climbing mother, Lucy has an insatiable need for love and protection. She commands Shep's devotion and loyalty through her two doomed marriages even as her volatile behavior accelerates into madness. Meanwhile, she has destroyed Shep's relationship with Sarah Cameron, daughter of another socially prominent Atlanta family. Central to the novel is Siddons's portrayal of Atlanta's social elite, who live in the exclusive suburb called Buckland, epitomized by Peachtree Road. Her depiction of the young set, called Pinks and Jells, "the golden elect of an entire generation," is a cameo of social history. She is equally adroit in interpolating civil rights and other germane social issues into the plot. But it is as an accomplished story teller that Siddons makes her mark, pulling out all the emotional stops in a compulsively readable narrative. 50,000 first printing; $55,000 ad/promo; Troll Book Club main selection; author tour. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
Headstrong, exuberant, and independent, Lucy Bondurant is a devastating beauty who will never become the demure Southern lady her mother and society demand. Sheppard Gibbs Bondurant III, Lucy's older cousin, is too shy and bookish to become the classically suave and gregarious Southern gentleman his family expects. 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. Anne Rivers Siddons's classic novel vividly brings to life their mesmerizing, unforgettable story--set against the dramatic changing landscape of Atlanta, a sleepy city destined for greatness.

ANNOTATION

Lucy Bondurant Chastain Venable is a beautiful woman of great passion and terrible need. Sheppard Gibbs Bondurant III--Lucy's cousin and lifelong confidant--is a man turned recluse by his own fatal feelings. Their mesmerizing story spans four decades--chronicling the astonishing love and hate between them and the turbulent transformation of their once-magnificent South.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Lucy Bondurant Chastain Venable and her now reclusive cousin Sheppard Gibbs Bondurant III, have been confidants ever since Lucy came to live with Shep's family. These two and their town has been through much over the years, and whether they can survive it together still remains to be seen....

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly