PEYTON PLACE

by Grace Metalious ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

My guess is that this new novelist, described by her publishers as ""Pandora in blue jeans"" will be publicized as an American Francoise Saigon. Her first novel attempts a wider sweep, in taking the lid off the foibles and vices and virtues of a New Hampshire town, but the approach is as uninhibited, as studiedly naive, as though Peyton Place were viewed through the eyes of young, sensitive, detached Allison MacKenzie. There are other views as well- the teacher, Miss Thornton, who sees with alarm some of the tendencies she senses in her 8th graders; the doctor, who dared to break the law because he put human beings first; the new principal of the High School, who refused to accept the mores of the town as eternally fixed. There's extraordinary perception here, a good sense of character and pace of story. But was it necessary- within the scope of one story, to include rape and incest, suicide and murder, lascivious curiosity, complexes that run the gambit of the Freudian cycle, and the ingredients that make for juvenile delinquency, country style? This is definitely a book that makes King's Row date. A great many people are going to read it for the brutal frankness of the scenes, the detailed sexual passages, often handled with tenderness and sensitivity, the violence of horror piled on horror. And a few will read it for the areas of amazingly mature writing, promising -- if the young author learns something of selection and restraint-an exciting future. Not a book for the thin skinned- nor for junior readers.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 0899668615

Page Count: -

Publisher: Messner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1956

Categories: FICTION