Peyton Place by Grace Metalious *****

 Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

In 1956, women had ambitions and desires. Men who didn’t respect them died. Who knew? And all in a small New England town. Peyton Place. The book was banned, but the ideas exploded into the women’s liberation movement. Not the book you were told it was.

The rich men from the old families ran Peyton Place. They had big houses and controlled the town. The poor mill workers lived in tar paper shacks without plumbing. However, Constance, an unwed, single mother, owned the Thrifty Corner Apparel Shoppe, a successful, expanding business. She raised her daughter, Allison, and provided opportunities for other women in town. Leslie Harrington owned Cumberland Mills. He employed the people living in the shacks and controlled the town selectmen and the bank. In the end, he lost everything.

Nothing is sugar-coated. Lucas Cross lives in a shack, drinks, beats his wife, and rapes his daughter, Selena. His wife commits suicide, but Selena prevails. Leslie Harrington is responsible for Kathy Ellsworth losing her right arm. No Peyton Place jury would go against him, but she also prevails.

Leslie raises his son, Rodney, to be a spoiled bully. Rodney dodges the World War II draft but gets his comeuppance in the end. The town doctor, Matthew Swain, performs an illegal abortion, but it turns out fine. Throughout the book, the 1956 status quo is subverted. Peyton Place was named for a runaway slave.

People have many opinions on this book. I like to think that the author, Grace Metalious, and the protagonist, Allison MacKenzie, are opening new vistas for the women of Peyton Place, but others read the book differently. The version I read had a long introduction by Ardis Cameron (ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1555534004).

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