Low Country

By Anne Rivers Siddons

Book Overview

Caroline Venable has everything her Southern heritage promised: money, prestige, a rich husband -- and a predictable routine of country-club luncheons and cocktail parties. Caroline is the chatelaine of a magnificent home, hostess to her husband's wealthy friends and prospective clients, and the official "one-woman welcome wagon" for young, eager talent that her husband, Clay, imports to their corner of South Carolina to work for the family company -- a vastly successful land-developing conglomerate. If Caro drinks a little too much for Clay's liking, he knows the reason why, and he takes comfort in the fact that she can escape to the island in the Lowcountry that her beloved Granddaddy left her. Wild and seemingly timeless, the island is a place of incomparable, breathtaking beauty -- and it is the one place where Caroline can lose herself and simply forget . Roaming the island is a band of wild ponies whose freedom and spirit have captivated Caro since she was a child. When she learns that her husband must either develop the island or lose the company that he spent his whole life building, she is devastated. The Lowcountry is Caroline's heritage -- the one constant she believed would never change. A resort would not only tame (and therefore destroy) the island she loves -- but what will happen to the wild ponies? Spurred to action and inspired with new purpose, Caroline must confront the part of herself that she has numbed with alcohol and careful avoidance, and she must reconsider her priorities -- what is important enough that she would die for it? In fighting to save the island-- her island -- Caroline draws on an inner strength that forces her to reconsider her role in society, her marriage and, ultimately, herself. Low Country is a story of personal renewal and transformation -- one woman's proper Old South upbringing and expectations colliding with the new South's runaway prosperity. It is magnificently told, and it is Anne Rivers Siddons at her absolute best.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060176164
• ISBN13: 9780060176167
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Harper Collins
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 1.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

A great book!

I was very surprised to see all the negative reviews for "Low Country". I personally thought it was one of Anne Rivers Siddons' best books ever. I agree with the readers that say that her genre is somewhat predictable, but that is what makes her books almost comforting. I, for one, like happy endings. I loved "Colony" and "Fault Lines" and put this one on the same level. She chooses her surroundings carefully, but her characters always seem to be a part of their area. Any woman who has been through a crisis that shakes her marraige to the bone and makes her grow as woman and a partner can relate to her books.

Siddons has captured the Lowcountry

You would think Siddons was a Lowcountry native or lived in one of the many developed islands in coastal SC. Caro reminds me a lot of local women, who grew up with an appreciation of the Gullah culture and a fear of development. I still am haunted by the development of Dafuskie Island.Siddons captures the two cultures living side by side extremely well.

Siddons brought the low country home with her descriptions.

I didn't think I would find a Siddons book that equaled Up Island, but Lowcountry certainly did. Having lived in the "low country," I can appreciate Caro's concern over the spoiling of the marshes and the exploitation of the Gullah people. I thought the plot moved rapidly; nothing was obvious...I found myself gasping several times at the turn of events. Even three quarters through, I would not have been able to guess the ending. It would be hard for me to choose the better of the two....in terms of character development, plot, and local color.

Why can't more American authors write like this?

How fitting that nearly all of Siddons' books have place times for titles! She is a master at painting verbal photographs of places - without cliches or trite turns of phrase. This story, as with most other Siddons' works, delicately balances plot with dialogue, characterizations and vivid descriptions. Siddons knows when to hold back, too, never going over the top. Here she has put together the story of a woman and her relationships with nature, her past, her family and the new forces that enter her life. I think Caro may be my favorite Siddons' character yet. Thank you, ARS, for yet another fine story. Your book arrived in my local bookstore just when I needed to escape from my own world into another.