| <b>book description</b><br/>smoky o'donnel arrives in atlanta in 1966 to work as a writer with atlanta's downtown magazine. from the remarkable men who change her life to the great social movements sweeping the nation, smoky's world creates a powerful story of the end of innocence. from the bestselling author of colony hill towns. <br/><br/><b>from <i><b>publishers weekly</i></b></b><br/>her latest novel exhibits siddons's ( hill towns ) strengths weaknesses in equal measure may leave her fans underwhelmed, disappointed in her uninspired often pretentious story line. the background, atlanta in the heady '60s, is well done, but siddons's penchant for excessive prose hokey nostalgia often gets out of h. maureen "stormy" o'donnell is a naive young woman from a working-class irish-catholic family who moves to atlanta in the mid-'60s to write for a local magazine. (her ease in getting the job her overjoyed welcome by her new colleagues is the stuff of fairy tales.) she's romanced by socially prominent, old-money swain brad hunt but has conflicting feelings about crusading photojournalist luke geary . during the course of the narrative, stormy tackles atlanta high society, triumphs over a bigoted lieutenant governor becomes involved in the civil rights movement-- with one of its charismatic stars, john howard. all this is rendered with a cloying, wide-eyed enthusiasm that hobbles siddons's attempts to explore the south's prejudice racism. her language, which in past books has sometimes teetered toward the overblown, now positively gushes. atlanta has "a sliver of brigadoon through its heart," brad is so hsome stormy "almost laughed aloud." still, readers may welcome siddons's attempt to grapple with moral social issues. 300,000 first printing; $325,000 ad/promo; literary guild main ion; first serial to cosmopolitan; audio rights to harper audio; author tour . <br/><br/><b>from <i><b>library journal</i></b></b><br/>echoes of pat conroy tennessee williams can be heard in half a dozen apocalyptic scenes, keeping us flipping through the last 200 pages of this hefty chronicle of atlanta in the sixties. the narrative is slow to warm up, as protagonist maureen "smoky" o'donnell emerges from the savannah docks to write for atlanta's award-winning downtown magazine. mentored by the charismatic editor-in-chief, smoky gets awards for covering the city's war on poverty. as the novel gains momentum, she dumps wealthy brad to find adventure with freedom summer veteran lucas-only to lose him to the war in vietnam. siddons (hill towns, harpercollins, 1993, other very popular novels), one of the first senior editors of atlanta magazine, has drawn on memory to create a satisfying historical romance spiced with wry humor.<br/> --joyce smothers, monmouth cty. lib., manalapan, n.j.<br/><br/><b>from <i><b>booklist</i></b></b><br/>siddons has had a solid winning streak with her seductive portrayals of plucky southern gals holding their own in alien territory, so she's stayed with a sure thing: smoky o'donnell is a pretty, curvaceous shanty irishwoman straight from the docks of savannah. smoky is an anomaly in her small, angry world: a young woman with ambition, talent, a wide-open mind. it's 1966, change is in the air, especially in the newly glamorous mecca of atlanta. smoky is lucky; she's been invited to join the chummy staff of a hip little city magazine. blunt, determined, passionate, she soon finds herself caught between two extremes: the wealthy, waspish power elite the volatile civil-rights movement. siddons devotes a lot of ink to describing the conflicting dynamics of this time place often seems overwhelmed by material we sense is close to her heart. in fact, for the first 100 pages or so, she seems to be driving with the brakes on. when she does let loose, she treats us to some irresistible romance as well as an unusual, if cursory, dramatization of the struggle between the black panthers followers of martin luther king, jr. what's intriguing about siddons is how much she transcends the usual parameters of fluff fiction, both in terms of literary finesse penetrating intelligence. although this isn't quite up to the caliber of her last book, hill towns , it's still a rewarding bound-to-be-popular page-turner. <br/> donna seaman <br/><br/><b>from <i><b>kirkus reviews</i></b></b><br/>fresh from a fictional european jaunt in last year's hill towns, siddons returns to the american south to depict a sheltered young woman's first taste of independence in the late 1960s. raised to be a ``decent catholic girl,'' 26-year-old smoky o'donnell leaves her working-class savannah home for the bright lights of atlanta, lured by a job offer from matt comfort, the talented high-spirited editor of downtown magazine. the newest senior editor easily fits in with ``comfort's people,'' the magazine's small in-house staff, relishes the on-the-town group socializing that is part of the job, but she becomes frustrated by matt's (sexist) insistence on occupying her with mundane tasks. smoky's break comes when she meets charming wealthy brad hunt, who wants her to conduct his previously scheduled downtown interview--as their first date. the civil rights movement exists only as background to the sheltered smoky, although brad mentions the race ``problem,'' this thread is taken up by two people who become increasingly important to her: lucas geary, an accomplished photographer with an irritating habit of aiming his leica up women's skirts, his friend john howard, who is one of martin luther king's ``closest lieutenants.'' smoky's career progresses as satisfactorily as does her romance with brad. yet even before lucas art director tom gordon head out for a look at the ``youth culture'' across the american lscape, one senses that the heady '60s culture ( downtown as microcosm) will be shown to contain self-indulgence other seeds of its own decay. siddons draws her ensemble cast with confidence panache. but her treatment of serious subjects like race, abortion, the sexual revolution is troubled by ambiguity, as if she were playing both sides of these volatile issues. (first serial to cosmopolitan; book-of-the-month club main ion; $325,000 ad/promo; author tour) <br/><br/><b>book dimension</b><br/>length: (cm)17.1 width:(cm)10.6 |
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