Peachtree Road (104 page)

Authors: Anne Rivers Siddons

BOOK: Peachtree Road

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Lucy Bondurant! Are you listening? Lucy…mark my trai-i-i-l!”

Only silence answered. She had gone, leaving to me the emptiness of willows and river. Empty, empty…My knees sagged, and the hopeless nausea rose in my throat.

And then another voice also, from far below me, came riding out of our childhood on the little evening wind.

“Shep Bondurant! I mark your trail!”

I snapped my head down, space swooping around me.

Sarah Cameron Gentry stood below on the weedy PEACHTREE ROAD / 817

approach to the bridge, her little blue Dodge parked hard beside the Rolls, her red scarf and black hair blowing on the wind. Her cupped hand shielded her eyes from the dazzle of evening light, and even from that distance I could see that she was laughing.

An enormous lightness seized me. Gladness started up in my chest like a lark in the meadow at Tate. The world jerked, shifted, flowed forward again like flood water. The wheeling space around me bellowed joy. I lifted one fist straight up and out in the old black power salute and, borne up on a great gust of laughter, dived into the sky.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The fruits of many lives, minds and hearts went into the making of this book, and I am profoundly indebted to each one. The authors of more books, newspaper and magazine articles than I can count deserve—and have—my gratitude, and the support and forbearance of more friends than I knew I had have kept the essential fires burning.

Special thanks are due to the dedicated and tireless staff of the Atlanta Historical Society, and to the many generous friends who shared their stories of Atlanta lore with me, especially Ham Stockton, David LeBey, Dick Williams, Betsy Fancher, Patsy Dickey and Marty Yarbrough;

And to Emily and Joe Cumming, who shared the magic of Tate colony and the richness of their lives; Emily’s story of the deer’s leap is, I think, a special point of light in these pages;

And to Alex Sanders, whose extraordinary anecdotes have been shamelessly purloined, as have the lifelong memories of my incomparable typist and dear friend, Martha Gray;

And to my beautiful friend Virginia Schneider, gone now, who showed me what Atlanta could be at its best;

And to my husband, Heyward, who knew this book would happen and never let me forget it; And to my agent and editor, Ginger Barber and Larry Ashmead, who helped it happen at each step along the way.

And finally, and with love and gratitude, to my friend Pat Conroy, who, on an autumn Saturday two years ago, made me see that it
could
happen…and should.

Thanks, guys. I love you all.

—Anne Rivers Siddons

February 1, 1988

Atlanta

CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR

ANNE RIVERS SIDDONS

AND

PEACHTREE ROAD

“Anne Rivers Siddons establishes herself in the front ranks of Southern writers…. While there are hints of Truman Capote and

Tennessee Williams…Siddons is her own

woman in this absorbing tale.”

Los Angeles Times Book Review

“One doesn’t read Anne Rivers Siddons’s books, one dwells in them.”

Chicago Tribune

“A sweeping chronicle of wealthy Atlanta gentry ruined by their privileged destinies.”

New York Times Book Review

“A brilliant novel with richly Southern themes of change and lost love. It pulsates with its vital portrayal of a Southern city in transition and the universal sadness of love left behind.”

Richmond Times-Dispatch

“A true work of art…. Moving and

powerful…. To finally come to the end of a novel of the sheer power and magnificence of
Peachtree Road
is like leaving a small portion of your life behind.”

Asheville Citizen-Times

“A blockbuster of a novel….
Peachtree Road
is the meaty and absorbing story of a city turned on to power and of the privileged inhabitants who led it to its current station as a mecca of business, culture, and

progress…. To say this book is potent and commanding does not come close to doing it justice. More than merely powerful, it is mesmerizing, enthralling, and totally

unforgettable.”

Chattanooga News-Free Press

“Like Faulkner and Conroy, the author

cannily manipulates the reader, unfurling familial horrors with just the right degree of psychic tension….
Peachtree Road
tantalizes its way to triumphs.”

Miami Herald

“Siddons masterfully uses the story of Lucy, Shep, and their generation to present a richly detailed portrait of an Atlanta in transition, lurching towards uncertainty, then speeding rapidly towards its position as capital of the Southeast.”

Dallas Morning News

“
Peachtree Road
is love story, history, mystery, and tragedy. As in all her novels, Ms.

Siddons’s characters develop, grow, and change for the best and worst.”

Baltimore Sun

“Filled with interesting people, a wonderful plot, and a grand sweep of history.”

Detroit Free Press

“Excellent…. Scarlett O’Hara’s ‘tomorrow’

has come to the South and Anne Rivers

Siddons has written the quintessential

account of its arrival in Atlanta…. An intricate blend of truth and imagination…. Siddons takes her story beyond child[ish] loss of innocence to mid-life intransigency with wonderful, lyrical prose that sweeps and sings and soars.”

Publishers Weekly

“
Peachtree Road
chronicles the death not only of an individual but of a way of life….

Siddons’s style, like that of Pat Conroy…is lush and full…. The novel is peopled with complex characters in an absorbing tale that will hold readers’ interest.”

Kansas City Sun

“Siddons’s way of delving into a character’s psyche is deeply satisfying.”

Denver Post

“Much of the power of
Peachtree Road
rests on Siddons’s understanding of the South, both its good and bad sides…. She is a fine writer, and her prose here is lush and

evocative as she depicts a city in transition and the sometimes-crippling effects of change on the very people who were its instigators.”

Macon Telegraph & News

“A vastly interesting, entertaining chronicle of life, love, and hate in the not-too-Old South. It has good depth of meaning in the intertwined lives of its characters.”

Grand Rapids Press

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ANNE RIVERS SIDDONS’s bestselling novels include
Nora, Nora; Low Country; Up Island; Fault Lines;
Downtown; Hill Towns; Colony; Outer Banks; King’s
Oak; Peachtree Road; Homeplace; Fox’s Earth; The
House Next Door;
and
Heartbreak Hotel
. She is also the author of a work of nonfiction,
John Chancellor
Makes Me Cry
. She lives in Charleston, South Carolina.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors

Books by

Anne Rivers Siddons

ISLANDS

NORA, NORA

LOW COUNTRY

UP ISLAND

FAULT LINES

DOWNTOWN

HILL TOWNS

COLONY

OUTER BANKS

KING’S OAK

PEACHTREE ROAD

HOMEPLACE

FOX’S EARTH

THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR

HEARTBREAK HOTEL

JOHN CHANCELLOR MAKES ME CRY

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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