Description
From Publishers Weekly A Siddons heroine of a familiar stripe, Caroline Aubrey Venable battles adversity and despair to save her South Carolina island in a somewhat unwieldy novel that again shows us a woman maturing under pressure. The death of her daughter five years earlier still shadows Caroline's life, and her occasional overindulgence in alcohol is something neither she nor her husband of 25 years will discussAso long as Caroline continues dutifully to play "mother superior" to the junior partners of her husband Clay's land-developing empire. When rumor comes to light that Clay's company plans to turn their low country home into a theme parkAthreatening the wild ponies that Caroline loves, not to mention the Gullahs who have lived there for centuriesACaroline is roused from her stupor. The leisurely pace and evocative atmospheric background of Siddons's fiction are in evidence here, and the confiding tone of this first-person narrative of betrayal and redemption offers few surprises. Some readers, however, may find Caroline annoyingly self-absorbed; may question why she doesn't object more strenuously when Luis CassellsAone of the islandersAcharacterizes Clay as "Mengele"; may find Siddons's depiction of Luis as a Cuban-Jewish Don Quixote improbable; may take umbrage at Caroline's patronization of the Gullahs; and may agree that the climax, while surprising, makes for a pat denouement. $250,000 ad/promo; U.K. rights to Little, Brown; first serial and dramatic rights: Virginia Barber; audio rights: HarperAudio; translation rights: HarperCollins; author tour. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Fans will find some familiar elements here: a sympathetic Southern heroine, an unlikely love interest, and a South Carolina low country setting fragrant with salt air. Caro Venable is a captivating mix of beauty queen, drunk, artist, dutiful corporate wife, and mother still grieving her daughter's drowning. Her love of Peacock's Island clashes with her developer husband's plans to subdivide her grandfather's land and turn its native tribal settlement into a "theme park." Caro is also tempted by a wild, rebellious Cuban botanist who shares her love for the unspoiled island. The novel ends with a circle of completeness: a corrupt husband returning to his decent self, a wife returning to her husband's love, an orphaned child filling the void left by a girl's death, and the island saved from development. Readers of Siddons's other books (Up Island, HarperCollins, 1997) will not be disappointed. -?Carol J. Bissett, Dittlinger Memorial Lib., New Braunfels, TX Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus Reviews Familiar ground for the prolific Siddons (Up Island, 1997, etc.), though her latest saga of the South replaces gothic melodrama with well-honed emotion. Narrated by Caro, independent-minded but burdened by sorrow after the death of her daughter, the story begins with this melancholy mothers retreat to ``the island.'' Hugging the South Carolina coast, the small marsh isle is part of Caros inheritance and heritage; staying in her grandfather's house, she goes to paint and ease her sadness. Amid evocative description of the island's lowlands, the sound of wild ponies, and visions of untouched woods, the plot takes shape: Caro's husband Clay, a successful land developer, has put his sights on her island, a prime piece of real estate. Unbeknownst to Caro, her husbands empire is on the verge of financial ruin, and only a new housing development can save his existing ventures--everything they have built together in their long marriage. Moreover, the development of the island risks not only a natural habitat and Caro's solitude but also one of America's few intact Gullah communities, which Clay's company hopes to turn into a theme park. Having known the community her whole life, and appreciating the resilience and wisdom of ancient conjure woman Auntie Tuesday and other locals, Caro is ravaged by the idea of seeing them posing for tourist photographs. Poised to help save both Caro's island and Caro herself is Lou Cassells, a tropical botanist recently hired by Clay, but really a mole trying to preserve the island. With him is his orphaned granddaughter Lita, whose vibrant presence forces Caro to confront the ghost of her daughter. Gradually, Caro begins to wake from the resigned sleep she's been living in and fight for her land--which also means fighting against her much loved husband and son's future. A delicate, compelling tale, full of real feeling and lush description. A treat for Siddons fans. ($250,000 ad/promo; radio, TV & print satellite tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Anne Rivers Siddons is the New York Times bestselling author ofxa019xa0novelsxa0that include Nora, Nora, Sweetwater Creek, Islands, Peachtree Road , and Outer Banks . She is also the author of the nonfiction work John Chancellor Makes Me Cry . Read more
Features & Highlights
- Caroline Venable has everything her Southern heritage promised: money, prestige, a rich husband -- and a predictable routine of country-club luncheons and cocktail parties. Caroline is the chatelaine of a magnificent home, hostess to her husband's wealthy friends and prospective clients, and the official "one-woman welcome wagon" for young, eager talent that her husband, Clay, imports to their corner of South Carolina to work for the family company -- a vastly successful land-developing conglomerate.
- If Caro drinks a little too much for Clay's liking, he knows the reason why, and he takes comfort in the fact that she can escape to the island in the Lowcountry that her beloved Granddaddy left her. Wild and seemingly timeless, the island is a place of incomparable, breathtaking beauty -- and it is the one place where Caroline can lose herself and simply
- forget
- . Roaming the island is a band of wild ponies whose freedom and spirit have captivated Caro since she was a child. When she learns that her husband must either develop the island or lose the company that he spent his whole life building, she is devastated. The Lowcountry is Caroline's heritage -- the one constant she believed would
- never
- change. A resort would not only tame (and therefore destroy) the island she loves -- but what will happen to the wild ponies?
- Spurred to action and inspired with new purpose, Caroline must confront the part of herself that she has numbed with alcohol and careful avoidance, and she must reconsider her priorities -- what is important enough that she would die for it? In fighting to save the island--
- her
- island -- Caroline draws on an inner strength that forces her to reconsider her role in society, her marriage and, ultimately, herself.
- Low Country
- is a story of personal renewal and transformation -- one woman's proper Old South upbringing and expectations colliding with the new South's runaway prosperity. It is magnificently told, and it is Anne Rivers Siddons at her absolute best.
