About this title: Winner of a Pulitzer Prize and the Ritz-Paris Hemingway Award, "A Summons to Memphis" is thematically a typical Southern tale of family tension, middle-aged desperation and revenge. Collections by Peter Taylor include "In the Miro District" and "The Old Forest" - winner of the PEN/Faulkner Prize.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1987
ISBN-13:9780345346605ISBN:0345346602
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Wear on seams and edges. Previous owner's name inside. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. "Americcan readers demand novels, and Peter Taylor has given them one; to say that it is every bit as good as the best of his short stories is the highest compliment it can be paid. "--Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World read more
Description: Good. Spine is smooth. Covers show some wear at the edges and corners. Good reading copy. Binding is Mass Market Paperback. Pages tanning. Used books may have price stickers. Most orders ship on the next business day. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1987
ISBN-13:9780345346605ISBN:0345346602
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. 233 pgs lightly tanned on edges in vg condition w/one pg dogeared; cover has removed sticker mark, some wear on edges and slight lean to spine. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Publishing Group, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1987
ISBN-13:9780345346605ISBN:0345346602
Description: Acceptable. Spine creasing with some spine roll; spine has not cracked through and pages are well attached; otherwise, all is nice; cover is especially bright and shiny; fine, clean pages; a very adequate reading copy. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Date Published: 1986
ISBN-13:9780394410623ISBN:0394410629
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. No Writing. No Highlighting. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 209 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
"Over the past three years I have become increasingly interested in the South. I realize more and more how little I know about this region and always enjoy a good read that is set in the South and therefore offers some glimpse of insight into the myriad realities existing there. Summons to Memphis is written in a dry, punctilious tone, and tells the story of a middle aged son who returns to Memphis when beckoned by his older unmarried sisters in order to prevent the marriage of their recently widowed father to a younger woman. The novel is so impressively measured and calm and tells the story of one Southern family with the exact lengthened drawl I imagine the characters to all have. 1987 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, done."
"This novella won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 and I suppose this might have started me off with very high expectations for it. In general I love southern books, having been reared by a southern grandmother. This book is like watching the ice melt in a tall glass of iced tea (a southern staple). It happens very slowly. As I've read in other reviews, this book does not have a lot of action. It's really about one event: the upheaval of a Nashville family forced to move to Memphis because of the betrayal of the patriarch's business partner, and the impact this has on his family, his wife and 4 children.
There's an awful lot about the 2 sisters, now utterly silly middle-age spinsters, who at one point in the book actually make it seem like a horror novel. They exact their revenge on their father because he prevented both of them from marrying their chosen beaux. The oldest brother escapes by enlisting and is killed in WWII. The mother takes to her bed and pretty much stays there for 30 years. I loved this passage about the actual leaving of Nashville for her and the family. "It was not until she was in the car and we were all about ready to venture forth that she seemed to understand the finality of the moment. She was seated in the front of the Packard when Father got into the driver's seat and closed the car door. Suddenly at that moment, when he firmly closed his door, she broke into deep sobbing and for several moments wept uncontrollably. We all crowded around the car, the four grown-up or nearly grown-up children and the three black servants. Father took her into his arms, and I shall always have the feeling, though of course I do not think it literally true, that it was the last time he ever took her in his arms. Then just as suddenly as she had begun, she ceased weeping. With her eyes still teary she smiled and said that she did not wish to leave a trail of tears."
The book is about forgiving and forgetting. Can you really have one without the other? Remarkably the last few pages picked up considerably, so don't give up if you find yourself lulled by this very southern book."
"This was a deeply subtle read, a kind of hide in plain sight kind of tale. I loved Taylor's insights into and descriptions of a vanishing American South, with all of it's pretensions, rules and foibles. I found the similarities of choices between generations fascinating, as rebellion turned to emulation."
"I enjoyed thinking about the structure of the story and the way it was told/written, almost as much as the story itself. The way the story unfolds and flips through time, contrasting the story of the narrator as well as that of his family was pleasant to unravel as a writer. I also liked thinking about how my feelings about the characters changed, how Taylor made that happen."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
