By Jack Mars
If you are looking for thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat, don't heed this summons to Memphis; but if you are interested in a well-crafted story, one that drips with the nuances of the South, and portrays the serpentine relationships of family, pick up A Summons To Memphis. I believe you'll understand why it won the Pulitzer Prize.
Some reviewers have been mild to cold when it comes to Peter Taylor's (1917-1994) fine work. Others would not consider it his greatest work, saving that appellation for A Woman of Means (1950). That may be true, however, the more I sit with this book, the more I like it.
Taylor, a master of the short story, a playwright and novelist penned A Summons To Memphis in 1986. His story revolves around George Carver, a once prominent Memphis attorney and now octogenarian. The elder Carver is preparing to remarry against the wishers of his two "spinster" daughters (whom we discover never married in large part due to their father). Carver's son, Phillip, narrates the story. As Phillip retells the events, we get insight into what it means to "grow up," fathers and sons, generational family hurts, injustice and forgiveness, and how what happens in adolescents shapes us and make us.
My reasons for five stars:
1. You can't make this up . . . or can you? Taylor's tale is vivid, so vivid one would think he was writing autobiography.
2. Life in the South: Taylor's grasp of Southern culture, even the nuanced difference between Nashville and Memphis, is delightful and historically instructive.
3. Fathers and sons: What sons gain and lose depending on what fathers do or don't as they boy grows up.
4. This is a book you can study: I think of this passage as Phillip's growing understanding of his own adolescence begins to shape his understanding of his sisters:
Forgetting the injustices and seeming injustices which one suffered from one’s parents during childhood and youth must be the major part of any maturing process. I kept repeating this to myself, as though it were a lesson I would at some future time be accountable for. A certain oblivion was what we must undergo in order to become adults and live peacefully with ourselves. Suddenly my sisters seemed no longer a mystery to me. I understood much of their past conduct as never before. They were still, while actually in their mid-fifties, two little teenaged girls dressing up and playing roles. It was their way of not facing or accepting the facts of their adult life. They could not forget the old injustices. They wished to keep them alive. They were frozen forever in their roles as injured adolescents. (Page 146)
5. A Summons To Memphis moves at the pace of life, i.e. slowly. I think this is what provides depth to his characters and, like good literature often does, makes the story memorable and bids us to return to it again.
My recommendation: Read this book if you want to see life in some of its nuanced glory, not if you want to be entertained. That said, I recommend it.
