Rating: 
Summary: great book
Review: A soap opera type book that doesn't follow any conventions. I really liked the movie and got the book to find out more. The characters are well written with modern problems, hopes, and dreams. The harsh reality of life finds its way into a small New England town. It is a story about real people and their real lives. Excellent. It differs greatly from the movie, and is much better than the movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Why is Tom's name changed???
Review: All right, I just finished Peyton Place, and it was a wonderful book, although I wasn't sure about the ending, Allison was so vague about who she was in love with, and what hope she had for a future with David. Here's what really kills me about the sequel, which I just started, why is Tom Makris now named Mike Rossi? This is driving me up the wall, now I never saw the soap, or the movie, so maybe I missed something. If you know why his name is differnet could you let me know? Other than that I really think it is very fun to have the original and the sequel in the same book. I think I like the whole small town idea, than I even care about Allison, she's almost the least real of all the characters. What do you think?
Rating:
Summary: Compelling; not for the faint-hearted.
Review: Arguably, this is the darkest portrayal of human nature I have ever read. And yet also the author conveys a deep, almost fathomless compassion for human frailty. Grace Metalious, I believe, had the heart of a saint. She hated the sin, but she loved the sinner. This story evokes nostalgia, revulsion, incredulity, indignation, sympathy, sexual arousal--in short, the entire rainbow of human emotion. This is not a light-hearted Summer novel. It is sobering, disturbing, and riveting. Still, in spite of its heaviness, it ends victoriously, for Allison MacKenzie realizes that grown-up children are NOT doomed to repeat the mistakes of their parents. The author's portrayal of small town life is piercingly, painfully accurate, to wit: "...in very small towns malice is more often shown toward an individual than toward a group, a nation or a country." However, I do have one criticism: Her depictions of Peyton Place strongly echo those of William Faulkner, whom I believe is the master scribe of small town infamy.
Rating: 
Summary: CONFUSED......
Review: Did I miss something? In Peyton Place, Constance's husbands name was Tom Makris. In Return to Peyton Place his name is Mike Rossi. What's that all about?
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: Grace de Repetigny Metalious was a writer way before her time. She brings up the issues in her storyline, in all of her books I will add, that challenges the reader. As a member of the Franco-American culture, she is one of writers we look up to in our heritage.
Rating:
Summary: Peyton Place
Review: Grace Metalious exposes the dark and seamy secrets of a small New England town in her blockbuster novel, "Peyton Place". Local dress shop owner Constance McKenzie struggles to raise her daughter Allison while trying to kept her secret past hidden from the prying eyes and local gossips. Allison's best friend, Serena struggles with her own mentally ill mother and alcoholic pervert stepfather. Serena's love for a local boy makes her stepfather jealous, leading to tragic consquences that affect the entire town
Rating:
Summary: Trashy fun --- better than Joan, Sidney, and Danielle!
Review: Having grown up watching the TV series based on this 1956 novel, this reviewer had always intended to someday read the book. I now can certainly see what all the furor was about. Metalious engaged in some very risky writing for that quieter, more conservative time. While anything in this novel seens tame to innocuous by today's standards, after the steamy potboilers of Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel, the author's insights into the makeup and less bucolic underpinings of small-town life ring as true as ever. The characters of Alison MacKenzie and her mother, Constance, are vividly alive and resonate with grace and humanity long after the book is through. Metalious' style is often overblown and purple prose abounds, but it is all rather fun and refreshing after much of the bleakness of contemporary fiction. Typically, the Kirkus review above pompously dismisses this as not being an "important" novel and decries its defender from academe as "puffery." Kirkus is well-known for such arrogant historionics and should be promptly ignored by the reading public.
Rating:
Summary: Also Confused
Review: I am also confused about the Tom Makris/Mike Rossi transition. Does anyone know the story behind this?
Rating:
Summary: This story is timeless...
Review: I am reading this book for the first time. I grew up in the 60's and watched the soap opera on television. Wow... it is still racy... it had to be absolute SCANDAL in the 50's and 60's. One last comment... the author's grammar and writing style is flawless; if it were not so racy, it would be a great primer for grammar and syntax.
Rating:
Summary: still relevant, still scandalous
Review: I became interested in this book after viewing a documentary on the 1950s entitled "Let's Play House." The story seemed very intriguing, a stark contrast to the typical portrayals of the fifties seen on "Leave it to Beaver" and "Ozzie and Harriet." While this book is no literary classic, I found myself drawn into the lives of these characters. I wasn't sure this book would still be as shocking by 2004 standards, but I was surprised to find it still rings true. Obviously, it's not AS taboo as it would have been in its day, when people only mentioned it in hushed voices to their closest friends. The author clearly HAD something with this book. I was glad to curl up with it each night, and would recommend it to almost anyone, except perhaps some younger readers.
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