Looking Back - Colony

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Colony by Anne Rivers Siddons

Fiction

1992 Harper

Finished on December 6, 2001

Rating: 4.5/5 (Terrific!)

Publisher's Blurb:

An unforgettable story of love, acceptance, and tradition from New York Times bestselling author Anne Rivers Siddons.

When Maude Chambliss first arrives at Retreat, the seasonal home of her husband's aristocratic family, she is a nineteen-year-old bride fresh from South Carolina's Low Country. Among the patrician men and women who reside in the summer colony on the coast of Maine, her gypsy-like beauty and impulsive behavior immediately brand her an outsider. She, as well as everyone else, is certain she will never fit in. And of course, she doesn't...at first.

But over the many summers she spends there, Maude comes to cherish life in the colony, as she does the people who share it with her. There is her husband Peter, consumed with a darkness of spirit; her adored but dangerously fragile children; her domineering mother-in-law, who teaches her that it is the women who possess the strength to keep the colony intact; and Maine native Micah Willis, who is ultimately Maude's truest friend.

This brilliant novel, rich with emotion, is filled with appealing, intense, and indomitable characters. Anne Rivers Siddons paints a portrait of a woman determined to preserve the spirit of past generations—and the future of a place where she became who she is...a place called Colony.

My Original Thoughts (2001):

Unforgettable! It took a couple of chapters to hook me, but then I couldn't put it down. I fell in love with this book, which reminded me of Rosamunde Pilcher's The Shell Seekers. Not great literature, but not fluff, either. Between passages and a great three-generational saga. I grew to care about many of the characters. Maude tells the story of her marriage and family, and shares details of their summer visits to "Retreat" on the Maine coast. She loves her husband dearly, in spite of his flaws (selfish & a terrible father). She raises two children and several grandchildren. Dysfunctional family, yet not an overly depressing story. Moving, yet not maudlin. Overbearing mother-in-law, Hannah, warms up toward the end of her life. Rich with emotion. Intense drama. Memorable characters and events.

My Current Thoughts:

This is one of those wonderful novels that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I no longer have a copy of the book (maybe I borrowed it from the library), but it's one that I've always wanted to re-read.