Peyton Place

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But the comparison to Susann may have even more to do with personality than prose. In an unusual move for the 1950s publishing industry, Metalious herself was at the center of the marketing blitz for Peyton Place. And she made for very good copy. A seemingly broke and burned out mom, Metalious came into her success virtually overnight, and she was determined to counter a lifetime of fears about her own irrelevance by consuming conspicuously and using her newfound notoriety to rub elbows with the rich and famous. According to Callahan’s Vanity Fair piece, she stayed at the Plaza Hotel, flirted with Cary Grant, and frittered away a million dollars. Metalious — the "Pandora in bluejeans" — was said by some to be a dreadful writer and a purveyor of filth, but her most famous book changed the publishing industry forever. With regard to her success, she said, "If I'm a lousy writer, then an awful lot of people have lousy taste," and as to the frankness of her work, she stated, "Even Tom Sawyer had a girlfriend, and to talk about adults without talking about their sex drives is like talking about a window without glass." Unknown to most readers, behind the fictional story about the lives and scandals of residents of a small New England town Metalious called Peyton Place, lay a dark secret based on fact. The story was, in part, inspired by a true life crime known in the press as “The Sheep Pen Murder,” which took place in Gilmanton, New Hampshire in the late 1940s.

Although Peyton Place had earned its reputation as a “bad” and “dirty” banned book that mothers hid under their mattresses the minute it was published (several states and the entirety of Canada banned the book altogether, declaring it indecent, and one library in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, posted a sign on their lawn reading, “This library does not carry Peyton Place. If you want it, go to Salem”), its cultural interpretation as a pulpy guilty pleasure also almost immediately undermined the novel’s more radical elements, such as the storyline involving incest and abortion. The character of Selena Cross, whose story borrowed elements from that of Barbara Roberts murdering and burying her own rapist father in 1947, remains as radical and powerfully relevant today as it was in 1956, even in a post- Roe v. Wade era. It would push the limits of my word count to list everyone who is featured in this book. To use a sports term, Peyton Place has a deep bench. Suffice to say there is an interesting swath of humanity on display.The novel spawned a franchise that would run through four decades. 20th Century-Fox adapted it as a movie in 1957, and Metalious wrote a follow-up novel that was published in 1959, titled Return to Peyton Place, which became a film in 1961 using the same name. The original 1956 novel was adapted again in 1964, in what became a prime time television series for 20th Century Fox Television that ran until 1969, and the term "Peyton Place" entered the American lexicon describing any small town or group that holds scandalous secrets. [2] This is a most interesting book. I remember seeing Peyton Place on TV as a child .. I think, perhaps, my mother was addicted to the series. When I received this book, I thought it was going to be something wholly different. As such, I am not disappointed at all.

Bienvenidas/os a Peyton Place, pasear por sus calles y conocer a sus habitantes alterará considerablemente vuestro sistema nervioso. After Metalious's death, Peyton Place resurfaced as the setting for nine novels by Don Tracy (1905–1976), writing as Roger Fuller, including Evils of Peyton Place (1969) and Temptations of Peyton Place (1970), but this series had only modest sales. [6] So this is a novel where you can encounter massively boned men. And when women lose their temper, this can happen : Both women were compelling and I would have given this book 5 stars if it had been longer and gone into more depth about Grace and Barbara instead of the rushed endings.

I knew that the Peyton Place book was based on a true story. However, I could never have guessed at just how incredible the story of the murder of Sylvester Roberts would be. His daughter eventually confessed to the crime. She was sentenced to a prison term, although after a length of time, she changed her plea from Not Guilty to Guilty. This plea was changed to protect her younger brother. Many felt that her brother had a hand in the murder, but from reading through the story, and drawing some conclusions on Barbara herself, I have no doubt that she was capable of the killing, and of course, of moving and hiding the body, without the aid of her brother. They lived on a farm, and from a young age, she was used to the hard manual labor. Her father and older brothers were often away from home as they were Merchant Marines. Una historia que se cuece a fuego lento abarcando una década (años 30-40s), sin prisas, como el mejor de los guisos. Es así como se realzan los ingredientes y se consigue el sabor más sabroso, y Grace Metalius sabía lo que se hacía. Como quien no quiere la cosa, pieza a pieza, se va dando forma a un puzzle donde todo termina por encajar y sacar a la luz las vergüenzas de un lugar lleno de diferencias sociales que separan a unos de otros, racismo, corrupción… y temas tan escabrosos como el incesto. Al tiempo que vemos crecer (y envejecer) a los personajes, los vemos enamorarse, casarse, mentir, asesinar, cumplir sueños, fracasar, morir… Both Grace and Barbara had tragic events in their lives. It was fascinating that 1940s and 1950s small town residents could forgive and embrace a young woman for murder more easily than a rebellious writer who would not conform to small town standards. Because Grace has a terrible tragic tale to tell there isn’t as much of that kind of wit as I would have liked

Since this is not nearly as scandalous as its reputation implies, the question becomes: is there a reason to read Peyton Place? It was a question Grace Metalious fielded a lot, and one that dogged her, even as she thrilled to experience a kind of power and influence she hadn’t expected. Her story began as a charming rags-to-riches tale about a mother who followed her dream of writing books, and wrote one so good it captivated the nation. But it went on to become an allegory for the swift, corrupting force of wealth and fame, and a sad testament to the potential for ugliness that awaits when we get what we want. Won’t go wrong: It looks as if no writer will ever go wrong in stirring up the souls of a “typical” small townspeople. City people read these books and say: “you can’t tell me all that stuff goes on in a small town.” But the people in the small towns know better. A bland, soapy TV series (starring Mia Farrow and Ryan O’Neal) in the early 1960s altered the premise to the point where it obliterated whatever literary merit the book possessed. Metalious's publisher promoted her in a photo captioned "Pandora in Blue Jeans". [6] Commenting on her critics, she observed, "If I'm a lousy writer, then an awful lot of people have lousy taste". [7] Of her work's frankness, she said, "Even Tom Sawyer had a girlfriend, and to talk about adults without talking about their sex drives is like talking about a window without glass." [8] Later works [ edit ]

More about Grace Metalious

The Peyton Place Murder takes the reader from Grace's first days of her writing to her death at age 39. Her life, even when earning large amounts of money for her book, was not a happy one. She was not well-liked in the small town where she lived because everyone was scandalized by her book ... all swearing that she was using them as characters in her book. That never changed in her lifetime. A reporter once asked Grace if she thought Peyton Place would last. She said, ‘Oh no, I don’t think so.’ She was wrong. Time and significant changes in American social structure are placing Peyton Place in a new perspective. After more than 50 years the book is getting another look, and Grace is being seen as a woman who might have been ahead of her time.