I live on Peachtree St. "up the road" from Peachtree Road. Like others like me who grew up in Atlanta in the 50s I was interested in seeing how true this author was. I think he captured the mood of the time.

Excellent - highly recommend ( )

The quintescential Southern Gothic story. Well written meandering story, the best of Ann Rivers Siddon before she started churning out books over and over. Her best ( )

Not since Joyce Carol Oates's We Were the Mulvaneys have I been so totally immersed and emotionally impacted by a novel. The highs and lows of the life of Shep Bondurant and his cousin Lucy and those that move in circles around them drew me in from the very start at Lucy's funeral and refused to release me until it all came to a close 815 pages later. The idealic life of the wealthy Atlanta families of the 50's masked unspeakable horrors and unrelenting joy as these characters move toward what they are "meant to be." Lucy arrives in Shep's life and both saves and threatens to destroy him and everything that he holds dear. His relationship with his distant parents and controlling, manipulative Aunt Willa (Lucy's mother) and his nearly perfect relationship with Ben and Dorothy Cameron and their children Sarah and Young Ben, especially Sarah, are formed and reformed around Lucy and her behaviors. Siddons is able to move the novel in unexpected directions and avoid what the reader thinks is going to happen making the read totally compelling and immersing. She avoids falling in to any predictalble literary traps that Southern fiction can set for the author and for the reader. This is a truly original novel and Anner Rivers Siddons at her absolute best. It is at the same time Southern, Gothic and Tragic and every word well crafted and full of import. This is a novel that should not be overlooked or discounted. ( )

Love this book. One of the best books written about this time period.