A Southern Exposure - Softcover

Adams, Alice

3.06

252 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0449911136 ISBN 13: 9780449911136

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1996

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"A work that will be for many readers as memorable as the last decade's Superior Women, and her exquisite novel from the 1970s, Listening to Billie."
--San Francisco Chronicle
It is 1939, a brief, hopeful moment between the Depression and war. The Baird family--Harry, Cynthia, and their precocious daughter Abby--have escaped the burdens of their Connecticut life to salvage themselves in the sleepy southern town of Pinehill, North Carolina. But the Bairds soon discover that their new home is not quite as idyllic as it seemed up north. And while the family's fondest desire is to be enveloped by the timeless town and its eccentric characters, clouds of war loom darkly, suggesting the possibility of change. But who among them will change, and in what startling ways, remains to be seen. . . .
"What a terrific book. I loved its rich, recognizable characters, the intricacies and excitement of the plot, the beauty of the writing. I laughed out loud a number of times, growled with jealousy at Alice's skills, and stayed up all night to finish it."
--Annie Lamott
"Deliciously readable, evocative, sensuous, and intoxicating as a gossip with an old, smart friend."
--Mary Gordon
"A seductive panorama of a small southern town in the late 30s . . . With great truth and clarity, this novel captures it all."
--The Boston Globe
"Adams is a modern-day Jane Austen. . . . A Southern Exposure is a timeless comedy of manners."
--The Dallas Morning News

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From the Publisher:

For several years, I was intrigued by Alice Adams' books, but it wasn't until I joined a book club that I had the opportunity to read her. We agreed to read A SOUTHERN EXPOSURE, and when we reconvened a month later, we all deemed the book great!

Some of the women loved the Peyton Place-esque intrigue. Others enjoyed the authentic depiction of the South. Still others liked the wonderful characterization.

My favorite aspect of the book was the time period -- the 40's during World War II. Usually, when you read about World War II, it's about people who are directly involved with the war. It was very interesting to read how the war affected people in a small town in North Carolina -- thousands of miles away from the action. I was impressed with the intimate details of the period, and was quite surprised to learn that Alice Adams was not writing from first-hand knowledge (I discovered that she couldn't have been more than a small child -- if that -- in the 40's), since every detail rang so true.

I highly recommend this book for book club reading, especially, since it is a great read on so many levels.

Jennifer Richards
Ballantine Books Publicity

From Publishers Weekly:

Her deft prose both sensual and sophisticated, Adams, in her ninth novel, leaves the San Francisco setting of her recent books (Almost Perfect, etc.) to explore the intrigues and desires of the residents of a small North Carolina town. The country is in the grip of the Depression when the bright and beautiful Bairds?Cynthia and Harry, and their young daughter, Abigail?move to Pinehill. "They are, as they might half-ironically put it to each other, on the lam" from their too demanding and expensive life in Connecticut. In fact, there is much half-ironic about the novel, including Cynthia's secret reason for choosing Pinehill: it is the home of her favorite (and rumored to be sexy) poet, Russ Byrd. As the Baird's determinedly climb Pinehill's tiny but formidable social ladder, they encounter people thoroughly entrenched in the communal hierarchy and in their environment; at parties, the cleverly unattributed dialogue gives the sense that the town is of one mind. And yet each of the dashing characters is distinct?Dolly Bigelow, the pretty gossip; Jimmy Hightower, a writer manque who shares Cynthia's fascination with Russ Byrd; Odessa, Dolly's servant, who seems as suspicious of Cynthia's passive disapproval of Southern segregation as she is of Dolly's overt racism. Meanwhile, Russ neglects his wife, who has a breakdown; has a passionate affair with the town beauty, who bears him a son whom she passes off as her younger brother; and eventually becomes himself "helpless among the major passions of women"?including Cynthia's. Such melodramas feel witty, given Adams's intelligent characterization, and are at equal pitch with her descriptions of Pinehill's flush, distracting beauty. As always, her forte is the subtle misunderstandings and meshings of human relationships, viewed with both irony and compassion.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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