Nora, Nora: A Novel

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Summary: I laughed and I cried. Another Great one from Ms. Anne
Review: After reading some of the reviews of this book, I was a little concerned about it's content and whether I would like it or not. Now I say to you "Monday Night Quarterbacks", what were you reading? This was a wonderful book. Yeah, it's not a classic, but those of you who are familiar with Anne Rivers Siddons, knows that. This is also not "To Kill A Mockingbird" and should not be compared to it. To me, this is more about the characters and their stories. I loved Nora. She is spunky and not afraid to be herself and stick up for herself and what she believes in. She is also struggling with her past and tends to run away from it. Peyton is an enjoyable character as well. She grew into a little lady before our eyes.
I am a little confused as to the reason the housekeeper was referred to as both Clothilde and Chloe in the same breath. It took me a few pages to realize this was one person. I would love to ask the author why she did this.
This is a little different than most of Anne's books but I still loved it anyway. Well worth the read!!

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Summary: Eccentric Lives in the1960s: A Small Town in Georgia
Review: Anne River Siddons paints a wonderful portrait of a young girl growing up and coming of age into adulthood in a small town in Georgia during a time of innocence. After her eccentric cousin Nora comes to visit Peyton McKenzie, her life is turned topsy turvy and so are the lives of several other residents of the town. Peyton is on the verge of becoming a teenager, she never met anyone like Nora, who is independent and does not hesitate to challenge conventional thinking and the local establishment. Peyton harbors guilt for having killed her mother during childbirth, her mom died after she was born. Peyton belongs to an exclusive club, "The Loser's Club" ,where she and a few select friends share their 'secrets'. Peyton was raised by a single parent her father, who loves her but is somewhat remote. He has a housekeeper who also served as Peyton's nanny. Her highly particular Aunt Augusta (father's sister) took a benign interest in trying to feminize Peyton who resists these changes .... Peyton learns Nora is her mother's cousin's daughter and that a dispute between between the cousins, her mother and Nora's mother, occured sometime when Lila Lee (Peyton's mom) married her dad. Ms Siddons weaves numerous anecdotal events from the lives of her characters throughout the story ... many are amusing and charming which makes reading the book a delightful experience. Some mysterous events from the past eventually are revealed which shed light on the relationship between Peyton's and Nora's mother. Nora has some secrets of her own ... she lived a highly unusual independent life in her young adulthood. She is ahead of her time, the 1960s, in terms of civil rights, free thinking, and expresssion of personal freedom ... which she exerts. Her expressions of independence eventually land Nora into problems ... first with higher ups in the small town ... next with a past resident who made it to Hollywood and the big screen ... and eventually with Peyton's father who feels Nora is having a bad influence over Peyton.

The development of plot and characters is outstanding in this novel. The story is woven with finely honed skill. It unwinds to reveal how past secrets which were so safely guarded affect people's lives even today... Peyton learns how the lives of those loves are very complicated when the emotions and the heart are opened up. This is a highly recommended book. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

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Summary: Heartache and humor in the Deep South circa 1961!
Review: I am a huge ARS fan!! Some of her books are just plain "bad", but others are wonderful!! This is one!! The tried and true image of the "little lost soul" ie, Peyton, is quickly replaced by the strange, exotic, questionable character of Nora!! Nora breathes fresh air into Peyton's lonely life in small town GA circa 1961. Siddons' writing seems to capture the scene, the town, the era so beautifully!! I don't think she's ever written quite so discriptively!! And for those of you NOT from the South, she captures the true feeling of what it was like growing up in a small Southern town in the early '60's.

As for Nora, Siddons has captured the true "free spirit" that people were afraid of, were in "awe" of, secretly admired, and generally distrusted!! She is not the "true lady of the South" by a long shot!! I found this really refreshing!!! And I know a "Nora" in my small Southern town upbringing!! I'm sure there were many more!!! A little different from the usual ARS, but well worth the read!!

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Summary: NICE STORY
Review: I found this book was not as good as others that this author has written.....A coming of age story that shows Peyton McKenzie as a shy 7th grader who is very lonesome.... Her mother died when she was born and she feels that she killed her. Peyton has no friends except for Ernie and Boot who are members of her "Loosers Club". Her father is kind to her and loves her, however. he does not spend much time with her. Peyton's prim Aunt Augusta is the one who has the resonsibility of instructing her how to become a proper southern lady with poor results....At this time, colorful, cigarette smoking Nora. Peyton's 3rd cousin. arrives one day in small quiet Lytton, Ga. driving her pink convertible Thunderbird. Nora moves in with the McKenzies and her energy just transforms this household. Peyton loves her cousin and blossoms into a lovely young lady....Nora takes a job teaching a segregated honors English class in high school, but the citizens of this small town do not like Nora's "wild ways". THis being the early sixties they are not willing to have segregation in their schools...Nora carries a deep secret from her past in her heart and she does finally reveal it to Peyton with the understanding that it will remain a secret with her...I think you will find this novel enjoyable and will love the characters.

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Summary: Vintage Siddons
Review: In 1961 Lytton, Georgia seventh grader Peyton McKenzie lives with her widower father Frazier. At night Peyton watches old home movies of her family by herself. The filming stopped when her mother died so she never appears in any of them.

Peyton's second cousin, free spirited Nora Findlay, arrives and shakes up the household and the townsfolk with her ideas on racial equality and her open lifestyle. Nora begins to teach an English class of mixed races while tutoring. However, Nora has secrets of her own and though she loves her two relatives, has never been able to stay in one place very long. When will she find the pressure of Peyton and Frazier to be too much?

NORA, NORA is an excellent character-driven historical fiction novel that centers on life in a small Georgia town at the beginning of the civil rights movement. The story line is interesting, but lacks action. Instead the interrelationship between the characters and the motives that drive their actions make for an entertaining novel that readers will enjoy. Nora is warm and humorous as she stirs up the townsfolk to either back her antics or loathe her for representing the end of a lifestyle. Peyton is a great cast member who believes that she murdered her mother in childbirth. Frazier regains his lust for life. The secondary players add depth to the atmosphere as well as a better understanding of the three lead charcaters. Anne Rivers Siddons brings a bygone era alive with her wonderful period piece.

Harriet Klausner

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Summary: A Useful Read
Review: In Anne Rivers Siddons' book Nora, Nora, she captures the emotions of a 12 year old girl and unleashes them in a still racially-drawn South during the heat and turmoil of 1961. She sends a distant relative to relieve this girl of her pent-up preteen angst and of her father's sheltered life and changes it into something to talk about. Again Siddons has proven herself worthy of throwing herself into a life other than her own and turning it into something happy. With her colourful depiction and mysterious twist, Nora, Nora is a useful read that will soften hearts and bring a couple of laughs along the way.

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Summary: Shame on you Nora, and keep it up
Review: Take a somber seventh-grade tomboy on the edge of womanhood, a sullen father living mostly in his own sad little world, a weird grandmother who tells crows to go tell it to the devil, a pompous aunt who disdains anyone but the uppercrust, a black maid who makes scrumptious apple butter and tosses advice as quick as a salad, a motherless clubfooted black child, a church sexton and grave tender who reads classic books and listens to classical music, add in an assortment of other strange folks, then toss them all into a small town not far from Atlanta in early 1960's about-to-be-integrated Georgia, and you've got an interesting brew. Even better, add a spicy ingredient, such as an outspoken, tell-it-like-it-is, yellow-green eyed redhead named Nora, and you've got a hot new book from Anne Rivers Siddons. When cousin Nora rides into town in her 1955 pink Thunderbird, she cuts through both the melancholy and prejudice of smalltown Southern life, touching everybody in town in some way, especially her young tomboy cousin, Peyton McKenzie. But, in spite of her wild and wonderful powers, Nora brings with her a volatile secret, one that could destroy all that she's accomplished, and all she may want. "Nora, Nora" is a character-driven coming-of-age tale that satisfies.

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Summary: Slow Taking Off, But It Gets Better!
Review: The beginning of this book is just a little bit hard to get into as it talks about a spoiled rotten kid who felt she had everything to do with killing her mother.But when Nora arrives, the plot thickens and the story becomes much more entertaining and engrossing from there on. Anne Rivers Siddons has a way of writing with a different style with each book she composes, and this one though written well, is quite differently written then her others.

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Summary: Wonderful coming of age novel!
Review: This novel really appeals to all ages! Adult women will remember the angst of their own teen years; teens will identify with Peyton. Novel is distressingly short, though; WE NEED A SEQUEL!

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Summary: Couldn't finish this...
Review: This was my first Anne Rivers' book, and I admit to some disappointment. I loved the book up to the inclusion of the title character: Nora. Then the book turned into a Nora lovefest. Nora is smarter, sexier, more intelligent and more 'politically correct' than the rest of the other bigoted-narrow minded Anglos in the small southern town, feh. The other heroine, Peyton is an ungrateful child, who seems to to spend more time pontificating the doings of adults than any teenager alive. Instead of being grateful for the clothes and makeover her aunt gives her she whines and complains about it even to the point of being physically ill... Peyton was way too old to act like that. Errr.

Back to the character of Nora. To put it bluntly: I disliked her. If her anachronistic behavior (were not bad enough), the author uses Nora as her mouthpiece for an unending soapbox commentary of social issues from morality to racial-issues, and she does it with the weight of a leaden hockey puck. (While I DO agree racial issues and civil rights are big and important factors, I did not want to be bludgeoned every time the character opens her mouth).

I had to give this up about halfway through the book, the character of Nora just rubbed me completely the wrong way. If you want to read a book with racial issues done right, check out "To Kill a Mockingbird." I found Nora, Nora a disappointment.