A Southern Exposure

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“What a terrific book. I loved its rich, recognizable characters, the intricacies and excitement of the plot, the beauty of the writing.”  --Anne LamottReaching back to the Great Depression, and with all the insight, tenderness, and extraordinary narrative power that have been the hallmark of her writing, Alice Adams once again illuminates the workings of the human heart.When Harry and Cynthia Baird flee south from Connecticut to Pinehill, they hope to find a simpler, and cheaper, way of life, and a refuge from the burdens of their life in the North. What they find, in the small societies of a college town, each with its own intricate and beguiling etiquette is a deeper involvement in private scandals, long-held secrets, dangerous love affairs, dreams, desires, fears, betrayals.From Publishers WeeklyHer 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. From Library JournalDuring the Great Depression, Harry and Cynthia Baird and their daughter, Abigail, run from their New England roots to Pinehill, North Carolina, hoping to escape from debt, social obligations, and boredom. Instead, they stumble into a small-town soap opera with its own rules of conduct they struggle to understand. The mystery of the Southern way of life unravels as they settle into its rhythms. Their "Southern exposure," brief and idyllic, broadens them and helps them to approach the future with a new point of view. Adams's (Almost Perfect, Knopf, 1993) insightful descriptions and dialog make engaging reading. The characters are both complex and complete. Recommended for general readers.?Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., ProvidenceCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.