Hardcover, 224 pages
English language
Published Oct. 22, 1986 by Alfred A. Knopf.
A Summons To Memphis
by Peter Taylor
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In this richly observed, finely tuned novel, Peter Taylor takes us into the fascinating world he has made his own: the complex and privileged society of wellborn Tennesseans, adapting (or not) to the exigencies of modern life.
A Summons to Memphis revolves around the attempt on the part of the unmarried, middle-aged children of a charming elderly widower to foil his plans to remarry. The son, settled in New York, has withdrawn from his past and wants no part in his elder sisters' machinations - or is it vendetta? - against their father. But when they summon him to Memphis, he is powerless to refuse, and he finds himself quickly drawn into a family crisis that has its roots deep in the past. A part of memory he has long repressed surfaces-the wrongs done by his father, the lingering resentments, his sisters' petty reprisals and the repercussions. Until finally he …
In this richly observed, finely tuned novel, Peter Taylor takes us into the fascinating world he has made his own: the complex and privileged society of wellborn Tennesseans, adapting (or not) to the exigencies of modern life.
A Summons to Memphis revolves around the attempt on the part of the unmarried, middle-aged children of a charming elderly widower to foil his plans to remarry. The son, settled in New York, has withdrawn from his past and wants no part in his elder sisters' machinations - or is it vendetta? - against their father. But when they summon him to Memphis, he is powerless to refuse, and he finds himself quickly drawn into a family crisis that has its roots deep in the past. A part of memory he has long repressed surfaces-the wrongs done by his father, the lingering resentments, his sisters' petty reprisals and the repercussions. Until finally he comes to terms with the central trauma of his life: the abrupt dislocation, when he was a boy, of his family- from Nashville to Memphis-brought about by the treachery of his father's best friend.
The fullness of Peter Taylor's perceptions, the understated feelings that run so deep, his way of hovering over the action and drawing from it subtle, telling reflections that penetrate the many-layered complexities of family relationships, all serve to infuse his writing with a power that gives this novel its universality and enduring impact.
His highly acclaimed collection The Old Forest and Other Stories won the PEN/Faulkner Award as the best work of fiction in 1985. And now he gives us this wonderfully satisfying book, his first novel in thirty-six years, a crowning achievement in a long and distinguished career.