Peachtree Road
by Anne Rivers Siddons
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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 show more 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. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I first read this book when it was released in 1989. I have re-read it many times over the years, and just finished reading it again. 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. Siddons telling of Shep Bondurant's childhood is so nostalgic and evocative; I just love the first 200 pages of this book.
So it isn't really like Gone With the Wind at all, except in the broadest sense that the world the main characters loved so well has disappeared. Yes, most of the action does take place in Atlanta, but you can't compare A Tree Grows In Brooklyn with Bonfire of the Vanities simply because show more the action takes place in the 5 boroughs of NYC.
Lucy Bondurant has nothing in common with Scarlett O'Hara.....in fact, she is the polar opposite of Scarlett. Lucy can't save her own self, let alone be responsible for anyone else. Scarlett was strong, manipulative and a realist. Lucy, too is manipulative, but she manipulates from the position of weakness, neediness and extreme idealism.
Few of the characters are noble; they are all flawed in some way; the reader doesn't have to like or admire any of them, it is interesting enough just to observe them.
After reading many reviews, it seems as though many readers didn't understand the ending. The bridge in question is the same bridge that Shep and Lucy's group of friends all jumped off from during their swimming excursions of the Chattahoochee River. In high school, Shep was too afraid of heights to jump from the bridge, and he was mocked for his inability. When Shep stands on the railing of the bridge and Sarah calls out to him; he is not attempting suicide, and she is not encouraging him. With Lucy dead he is finally free; his burden has been lifted and he is no longer responsible for his crazy, wonderful, troubled cousin. I kind of think that he and Sarah finally got together after the last scene of this book.
Oh, and for the people who complained that the book starts out with Lucy's funeral, creating a spoiler......bullshit! At the beginning of the book, the reader has no idea who Lucy is; you know nothing about her, so the fact that she is being buried is immaterial. You have to read the book, find out who Lucy was, and what her life was like. You need to know the details of her relationship with her cousin Shep. Something tells me that these people who complained about "knowing how it ended" are probably the same people who loved the movie Titanic......even though they knew it sank with hundreds of people on board.
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who is seeking a great romance, because it isn't a romance novel at all. More tragic than anything else, as many of Siddons novels seem to be. I would recommend it to any open-minded person who enjoys a good, epic, slice of life novel. show less
So it isn't really like Gone With the Wind at all, except in the broadest sense that the world the main characters loved so well has disappeared. Yes, most of the action does take place in Atlanta, but you can't compare A Tree Grows In Brooklyn with Bonfire of the Vanities simply because show more the action takes place in the 5 boroughs of NYC.
Lucy Bondurant has nothing in common with Scarlett O'Hara.....in fact, she is the polar opposite of Scarlett. Lucy can't save her own self, let alone be responsible for anyone else. Scarlett was strong, manipulative and a realist. Lucy, too is manipulative, but she manipulates from the position of weakness, neediness and extreme idealism.
Few of the characters are noble; they are all flawed in some way; the reader doesn't have to like or admire any of them, it is interesting enough just to observe them.
After reading many reviews, it seems as though many readers didn't understand the ending. The bridge in question is the same bridge that Shep and Lucy's group of friends all jumped off from during their swimming excursions of the Chattahoochee River. In high school, Shep was too afraid of heights to jump from the bridge, and he was mocked for his inability. When Shep stands on the railing of the bridge and Sarah calls out to him; he is not attempting suicide, and she is not encouraging him. With Lucy dead he is finally free; his burden has been lifted and he is no longer responsible for his crazy, wonderful, troubled cousin. I kind of think that he and Sarah finally got together after the last scene of this book.
Oh, and for the people who complained that the book starts out with Lucy's funeral, creating a spoiler......bullshit! At the beginning of the book, the reader has no idea who Lucy is; you know nothing about her, so the fact that she is being buried is immaterial. You have to read the book, find out who Lucy was, and what her life was like. You need to know the details of her relationship with her cousin Shep. Something tells me that these people who complained about "knowing how it ended" are probably the same people who loved the movie Titanic......even though they knew it sank with hundreds of people on board.
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who is seeking a great romance, because it isn't a romance novel at all. More tragic than anything else, as many of Siddons novels seem to be. I would recommend it to any open-minded person who enjoys a good, epic, slice of life novel. show less
I tried to enjoy this book. I really did. I love historical fiction, but the main character/narrator's observations of his cousin Lucy just absolutely grated on me. 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 get that Lucy did not have an easy childhood between her dad and mom, but it seems that regardless of her environment she would still have been an narcissist. I was sick of Shep's devotion to her and his willingness to forgive her pretty much anything, and the way he went on about her magnificence/darkness (reminded me of Twilight and how Edward was show more obsessively described) After about 200 pages of this (out of nearly 600) I decided enough was enough and I was not going to waste any more time. show less
I get that Lucy did not have an easy childhood between her dad and mom, but it seems that regardless of her environment she would still have been an narcissist. I was sick of Shep's devotion to her and his willingness to forgive her pretty much anything, and the way he went on about her magnificence/darkness (reminded me of Twilight and how Edward was show more obsessively described) After about 200 pages of this (out of nearly 600) I decided enough was enough and I was not going to waste any more time. show less
Peachtree Road is a sweeping Southern magnum opus, centering around Old Atlanta and Buckhead. It follows the lives of Lucy and Shep Bondurant, first cousins with an incredibly close bond. The synopsis on the back may lead you to believe that it’s about Lucy (even though the narration is done entirely by Shep), but in a sense it is really about neither; it’s about a time and place and a generation disintegrated by its own weight and glittering “perfection.” Ms. Siddons’ prose is rambling and excessive and heady, much like the unconquerable honeysuckle vine whose scent seems to drift directly out of the pages. The ultimate plot may remind you of V.C. Andrew’s books, but done with style, grace, and almost a little bit of wry show more humor. If Peachtree Road is anything, it is extremely well written. At certain times it’s almost too much: too much description, too much tragedy, too many characters and themes, too many pages left towards the inevitable conclusion that you only begin to accept around the same time Shep Bondurant does. It’s almost as exhausting just to read as it is for Shep (and others) to be bathed in “Lucy-ness,” but in the end I would say its worth it. The last two paragraphs may leave you scratching your head, but for myself, I’ve come to the conclusion that only good things followed, even if they weren’t talked about (and after 800 pages, I don’t think I could have mustered the energy anyway). While it’s true that the book could have been honed down and chrystallized with some good editing, I would almost say that doing so would have diminished it in some way. That having been said, at least one part could have been cut out cleanly due to the impact it should have had but didn’t.My final verdict is this: I will read this book many times in the coming years, and learn something new from it each time, until it has been absorbed into my brain in all its Southern glory and tragedy and abundant summer. My review may seem like a complaint, but Peachtree Road is as vivid, alive and deliciously exhausting as Lucy Bondurant herself. show less
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 show more 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. show less
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.
Shep, a middle aged man who describes himself as a recluse and a hermit reflects on his childhood at the burial of his cousin Lucy. He and Lucy bonded as friends and confidants from the moment she moved into his family home when she was five years old and he was seven. The novel carries us through the adventures of their childhood, the risks of adolescence, and the angst of early adulthood, along with that of their families and close friends.
The fact that Lucy died is no spoiler, as the Prologue opens with her funeral. How she died is show more the surprise, and Shep's fate remains a mystery. show less
Shep, a middle aged man who describes himself as a recluse and a hermit reflects on his childhood at the burial of his cousin Lucy. He and Lucy bonded as friends and confidants from the moment she moved into his family home when she was five years old and he was seven. The novel carries us through the adventures of their childhood, the risks of adolescence, and the angst of early adulthood, along with that of their families and close friends.
The fact that Lucy died is no spoiler, as the Prologue opens with her funeral. How she died is show more the surprise, and Shep's fate remains a mystery. show less
The first time I picked up this book, I put it down after about 20 pages because I just couldn't get into it. Some months later, I picked it up again, started reading it and was so sucked into the story that I was sad to see the book end. I absolutely loved this book.
Phew! I have just finished this amazing story so wonderfully written. I feel I know all the people so well and have lived it with them. It is so cleverly done leaving us with a couple of questions and I especially want to know, is - who is Malory's father? What happened next?
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Author Information
41+ Works 13,344 Members
Novelist Anne Rivers Siddons was born in Fairburn, Georgia in 1936. She studied at Auburn University in Alabama and Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. Siddons was an editor and columnist for the Auburn Plainsman, senior editor for Atlanta magazine and worked in advertising. Her treatment of the South in her novels often earns comparisons to show more Margaret Mitchell. One of her books, Peachtree Road, won her Georgia author of the year honors (1988). Her novels include: Sweetwater Creek, Off Season and Burnt Mountain. In 2014 her title, The Girls of August, made The New York Times Best Seller List. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Distinctions
Notable Lists
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1991-05
- People/Characters
- Sheppard Gibbs Bondurant III; Lucy Bondurant Chastain Venable; Olivia Redwine Bondurant; Sheppard Gibbs Bondurant, Jr.; Adelaide "Little Lady" Bondurant Rawson; Willa "Willie Catherine" Slagle Bondurant (show all 21); Sarah Tolliver Cameron Gentry; Ben Cameron, Jr.; James Clay Bondurant; Martha Cater; Leroy Pickens; Charlie Gentry; Shem Cater; James "Jamie" Clay Bondurant, Jr.; Benjamin Aird Cameron; Dorothy Chase Cameron; Pres Hubbard; Tom Goodwin; Snake Cheatham; Freddie Slaton; Nunnally"Red" Chastain
- Important places
- Buckhead, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Fulton County, Georgia, USA; Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
- Epigraph
- Some of the time, going home, I go
Blind and can't find it.
The house I lived in growing up and out
The doors of high school is torn
Down and cleared
Away from further development, but that does not stop me.
Of my blind spot are
The Buckhead Boys. If I can find him catch him in or around
Buckhead, I'll never die; it's likely my youth will walk
Inside me like a king.
-James Dickey
"Looking for the Buckhead Boys" - Dedication
- For Lee, Kemble, Rick and David. My main men. And for Betsy Fancher.
- First words
- The South killed Lucy Bondurant Chastain Venable on the day she was born. It just took her until now to die.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)An enormous lightness seized me. Gladness started up in my chest like a lark in the meadow at Tate. The world jerked, shifted, flowed, forward again like floodwater. The wheeling space around me bellowed joy. I lifted one fist straight up and out in the old black power salute and, borne up on a great gust of laughter, dived into the sky.
- Blurbers
- Hemphill, Paul
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 813.54 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English 1900-1999 1945-1999
- LCC
- PS3569 .I28 .P4 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 1961-
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 826
- Popularity
- 33,173
- Reviews
- 18
- Rating
- (3.91)
- Languages
- 6 — Dutch, English, French, German, Norwegian (Bokmål), Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 28
- ASINs
- 10
