Review: Peyton Place (novel)

1956

By Grace Metalious

We had to read Peyton Place for my Sexuality in America class. And you know how that usually goes: you hate the fact that you must read said book and so you dislike the book and desire to throw it in a fire. Well as it turns out Peyton Place is actually quite good.

As you may or may not know, it was really scandalous when it came out but nevertheless extremely popular. I thought, scandalous in the 50s, probably not so shocking now. But actually, it's quite shocking indeed. There are in fact pretty explicit sex parts, and pretty explicit violence, but most of all just the things that happen are kind of disturbing and for me unexpected. You've got a 16 year old girl raped by her step-father (apparently Metalious originally wrote it as her real father but her publisher made her change it) and then getting an abortion, and a couple people dying in gruesome ways.

The favorite quotes of the 50s and 60s were as follows:

Rod, the rich playboy, takes Allison (a "nice girl") to the school party, but goes for a make-out session with mill girl Betty in his car - until Betty says: "Is it up, Rod? Is it good and hard? Then go and shove it into Allison McKenzie!"

and

Connie, the sexually repressed dress shop owner (Allison's mother) goes for a midnight swim with Tom, the virile high school principal, who tells her, "Untie the top of your bathing suit, I want to feel your breasts against me when I kiss you."

Now, which one do you think was popular among young men, and which among young women? The class was split evenly in its guessing, but there is a correct answer.

The scene with Connie and Tom having sex for the first time seemed to me to be bordering on date rape, and I was really uncomfortable with it. He's supposed to be getting her over her false repression when he knows she really wants sex/love but... it wasn't cool.

Basically the novel is lashing out against the norms of the time. Funny how some of those are trying to make a comeback.

Grade: B

a quote

"How unyielding is that space between connection and interruption - one false move, one misspoken word, and you find yourself on the wrong side of things." - Dalia Sofer, The Septembers of Shiraz

Discworld progress

This post exists simply to keep track of my progress in completing my reading of the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. For this list, I'm not counting short stories, mapps, science books, quiz books, diaries, or other miscellaneous books - just novels (though that doesn't mean I don't want to read those, too. I may add them later.) It is in chronological order by date of publication according to Wikipedia and I will do my best to recall the date/time period read of each book. The appropriate story arc is in brackets.

The Colour of Magic [Rincewind] - read 2005

The Light Fantastic [Rincewind] - read 2005

Equal Rites [Witches/Wizards] - read 12 March 2010

Mort [Death] - read 13 August 2007

Sourcery [Rincewind/Wizards] - read 18 August 2007

Wyrd Sisters [Witches] - read 4 July 2011

Pyramids [Miscellaneous] - read 1 May 2011

Guards! Guards! [City Watch] - read 7 March 2009

Faust Eric [Rincewind] - read 24 April 2011

Moving Pictures [Misc.] - read 28 June 2009

Reaper Man [Death/Wizards] - read 18 May 2006

Witches Abroad [Witches] - read 30 July 2007

Small Gods [Misc.] - read 4 December 2008

Lords and Ladies [Witches/Wizards] - read 16 December 2009

Men at Arms [City Watch] - read 16 October 2009

Soul Music [Death/Wizards] - read 21 May 2007

Interesting Times [Rincewind/Wizards] - read 30 June 2009

Maskerade [Witches] - read 18 May 2009

Feet of Clay [City Watch] - read 4 May 2009

Hogfather [Death/Wizards] - read 20 January 2007

Jingo [City Watch] - read 10 February 2010

The Last Continent [Rincewind/Wizards] - read 2005

Carpe Jugulum [Witches] - read 29 July 2006

The Fifth Elephant [City Watch] - read 18 July 2009

The Truth [misc.] - read 23 July 2009

Thief of Time [Death/History Monks] - read 2008

The Last Hero [Rincewind]

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents [misc.] - read 27 July 2009

Night Watch [City Watch/History Monks] - read 2005

The Wee Free Men [Tiffany Aching] - read 4 May 2009

Monstrous Regiment [misc.] - read 12 February 2006

A Hat Full of Sky [Tiffany Aching/Witches] - read 10 May 2010

Going Postal [Moist von Lipwig] - read 2005

Thud! [City Watch] - read 17 June 2007

Wintersmith [Tiffany Aching/Witches] - read July 2010

Making Money [Moist von Lipwig] - read 20 December 2008

The Unseen Academicals [Wizards] - read 25 January 2010

I Shall Wear Midnight [Tiffany Aching]

I now have 2 to go.

A couple of quotes

From Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close:

"You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness."

'"It was a horrible sight, Oskar: their arms in crude splints, straight in front of them like zombies! They couldn't feed themselves, because they couldn't get their hands to their mouths! So you know what they did!" "They starved?" "They fed each other! That's the difference between heaven and hell! In hell we starve! In heaven we feed each other!" "I don't believe in the afterlife." "Neither do I, but I believe in the story!"'

"Everything that's born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped."

"I said, I want to tell you something. She said, You can tell me tomorrow. I had never told her how much I loved her. She was my sister. We slept in the same bed. There was never a right time to say it. It was always unnecessary. The books in my father's shed were sighing. The sheets were rising and falling around me with Anna's breathing. I thought about waking her. But it was unnecessary. There would be other nights. And how can you say I love you to someone you love? I rolled onto my side and fell asleep next to her. Here is the point of everything I have been trying to tell you, Oskar. It's always necessary."