Pretty risqué for the 1950s, but a useful book for understanding society. ( )

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The parts I liked most about Peyton Place was the detail about the New England Upper Connecticut River Valley life. I could very much relate to the places since White River (Junction), the "town" that is directly across the Connecticut, in Vermont, is in the same county as the one I grew up in. However, I get the unsettling feeling Metalious wanted to upset the people living here more than anything.

The things I disliked most about the book was there were too many characters for a novel that was only about 350 pages and the focus character switched too much. Also, I found the last chapter unsatisfying with a somewhat selfishness to it, right after the dramatic court case which was very progressive for a book written in the 1950's. It's more a good trashy soap opera than a good nighttime drama, in my opinion.

Another major problem I had with the book was the excessive, and only why, she descried a free black slave using the worst word a white person could say (note: Samuel Peyton was the only non-white person even mention and he wasn't even an actual charter). ( )

Details the lives of three women mainly, along with various other characters, living in a small New England town in the late 1930s-early 1940s. It was banned many times over for its sexual content, and while I suspect it was fairly salacious for its time, it's pretty tame now. That doesn't make the story any less interesting or well told, though. I enjoyed how all the characters - well drawn, to a one - interacted and influences each other's lives, and while the book is arguable not high literature, I thought it was a great read. ( )

It seems we begin in 1937, although I had to read several hundred pages to figure this out. We're in some small town in New Hampshire, along the Connecticut River, the river that separates New Hampshire from Vermont. One of the main characters is a 13-year old, Allison MacKenzie. Well, my mother-in-law, was a 13-year old in 1937 and she lived in a town in New Hampshire that overlooked the Connecticut River. So, I'm having some issues already. 😉

Ok, over the course of the book, we follow Allison MacKenzie, her mother who is hiding rather a large secret, Selena Cross, who is sort of from the other side of the tracks, first in 1937, when Allison and Selena are 13, then again in 1939, and finally in 1944 or '45. We also get rather a good look at the characters who make up a small town, with lots of gossip and back biting, young women getting "in trouble", young men skipping off to leave the young women to their "troubles", and so forth.

In some ways, this is rather a depressing book, because some pretty horrible things happen. In other ways, however, it's quite a lovely book. Well written, and most likely a fairly accurate portrayal of people's lives in those times. Unfortunately, my mother-in-law is getting a bit up there in age and I wouldn't be able to discuss such things with her any more. But, I do see Peyton Place-y kinds of issues going on in her town, through the lens of some ex-in-laws.

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