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Summary: From THE WASHINGTON POST:
Review: "Quite simply, there is not a better writer of fiction now at work in the United States.... In A WOMAN OF MEANS...the reader is transported into a place so faithfully similar to the real world, yet so imbued with a knowledge of it that none of us can hope to possess, that one is left breathless with admiration."
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Summary: Review by Robert Penn Warren
Review: "No description of mere mortals or events of A WOMAN OF MEANS can indicate the particular kind of excitement it possesses--the excitement of being constantly on the verge of deep perceptions and deep interpretations."
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Summary: From THE WASHINGTON POST:
Review: "Quite simply, there is not a better writer of fiction now at work in the United States.... In A WOMAN OF MEANS...the reader is transported into a place so faithfully similar to the real world, yet so imbued with a knowledge of it that none of us can hope to possess, that one is left breathless with admiration."
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Summary: A (re) Publishing Phenomena!
Review: I don't have an inkling as to how this tightly-crafted novel, circa 1950, happened to be re-published in 1996 by Piccador, but the discovery thereof is a bibliophiliac's treasure. Other readers posting here have succinctly reported the plot which is written from the perspective of a pre-teen boy. But, the skill of the writer becomes apparent when - utilizing the same voice - he depicts what is happening to the ten-year-old youth as well as the 14-year one. If one had read this in the 50's, say, at the time East Of Eden found its way to the shelves, the impression of greatness of Peter Taylor's slim opus could have been easily overlooked. The irony is that reading it more than fifty years later, I find this coming-of-age story as heart-rending as any I have ever perused. If you are reading this, than you are already considering the purchase of the soft-cover. Don't hesitate!
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Summary: Taylor is great-he died in Nov.1994. Warren is dead also
Review: I don't know how these reviews can look so recent
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Summary: Deceptively straightforward style
Review: Normally, after reading a book I have many things to say about it, some of which come easily and others which I struggle to put into words. After completing A Woman of Means by Peter Taylor, I felt a whole rush of half-formed ideas and feelings bubbling just below my consciousness, but which I was unable to articulate. I beleive this is because although the story is told in a straightforward style and is easy to follow, it's presented through the eyes of a intelligent,young narrator who's struggling to find a place for himself, whether it be at his school, in the city, or in his own family. Much of his uncertainty comes from his inability to establish a firm relationship with a mother-figure, whether it be with the grandmother he describes while recalling his earliest memories in the rural South, or with his wealthy step-mother whose home he lives in with his father in St. Louis. A mother to him seems to represent a home, which is something he has never really had, due to his constant moving from place to place with a father who is determined to make a name for himself. When his father begins to achieve some professional success, gets married to a wealthy young widow and they move into the woman's house, there finally seems to be a chance to develop roots in a town, at a school, and most importantly within a family. The story focuses on the boy's gradual sense of belonging and how this belonging is eventually threatened by what he perceives as the disolution of his parents's marriage. It is a very complex examination of not just what the boy needs to be happy, but his father and step-mother as well, and includes the the themes of wealth/poverty, the city/country, moderness/ tradition, and love and reputation--all of which are relevant to our own age. It also contains the same mysterious quality of all great art, in that it encapsulates things that can only be truly assimulated, not through the mind, but through the heart.
Rating:
Summary: Deceptively straightforward style
Review: Normally, after reading a book I have many things to say about it, some of which come easily and others which I struggle to put into words. After completing A Woman of Means by Peter Taylor, I felt a whole rush of half-formed ideas and feelings bubbling just below my consciousness, but which I was unable to articulate. I beleive this is because although the story is told in a straightforward style and is easy to follow, it's presented through the eyes of a intelligent,young narrator who's struggling to find a place for himself, whether it be at his school, in the city, or in his own family. Much of his uncertainty comes from his inability to establish a firm relationship with a mother-figure, whether it be with the grandmother he describes while recalling his earliest memories in the rural South, or with his wealthy step-mother whose home he lives in with his father in St. Louis. A mother to him seems to represent a home, which is something he has never really had, due to his constant moving from place to place with a father who is determined to make a name for himself. When his father begins to achieve some professional success, gets married to a wealthy young widow and they move into the woman's house, there finally seems to be a chance to develop roots in a town, at a school, and most importantly within a family. The story focuses on the boy's gradual sense of belonging and how this belonging is eventually threatened by what he perceives as the disolution of his parents's marriage. It is a very complex examination of not just what the boy needs to be happy, but his father and step-mother as well, and includes the the themes of wealth/poverty, the city/country, moderness/ tradition, and love and reputation--all of which are relevant to our own age. It also contains the same mysterious quality of all great art, in that it encapsulates things that can only be truly assimulated, not through the mind, but through the heart.
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Summary: "All good families have their quarrels."
Review: The novel "A Woman of Means", by Peter Taylor, is set in the 1920s. The narrator is a young boy, Quint Dudley. Quint's mother died when he was born, and Quint subsequently lives with his traveling salesman father in a series of shabby boarding homes. Quint's father, Gerald, always promises Quint that one day things will get better. One summer, while Quint is visiting his grandmother in Tennessee, his father arrives and announces that he is getting remarried. Gerald's new wife, it is revealed, is a "Woman of Means", Ann Lauterbach, a millionaireness with two grown children of her own.
At first, it's an idyllic situation, and Quint is equally enamored of his glamorous stepmother and her impressive lifestyle. The role of dutiful stepson is handed to him on a silver platter, and so that's the role he assumes. Quint takes easily to the comforts that wealth brings, and he is so hungry for a mother, he accepts Ann unquestioningly. Quint functions in a world of chauffeur driven cars, private schools, and balls. This world is a far cry from the hand-to-mouth existence he's led with his father, but Quint doesn't miss a beat. He takes to the new lifestyle immediately.
Even Gerald metamorphoses into a new, more sophisticated self, and Quint notices these visible changes. Money, security and power make tremendous differences to the lives of Quint and his father, but all these things stem from Ann's bank account. When Quint's family life begins to unravel, he finds he is the victim of divided loyalties, and there are some hard facts ahead that he would rather avoid. With a child's perception, Quint attempts to find the villain in the piece, and the villain in this case is anyone who threatens the stability he currently enjoys.
The characters are well drawn--Ann's daughters are seen as supercilious and shallow--even though Quint does not quite perceive them this way. However, as the story is told through Quint's eyes, some issues remain unanswered at the conclusion of the novel. Many writers, who use a child as a narrator, often use the device of the child having some sort of special knowledge or position, or the child--now an adult--can tell the story in retrospect as in L.P. Hartley's novel, "The Go Between", for example. Author, Peter Taylor's story is told strictly from a child's perspective, and as such, Quint--as bright and sensitive as he is--does not hold all the answers to his parents' relationship, and this leaves some vast questions--displacedhuman
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