A book in my father's bookcase

Grace Metalious' novel about life in small town America of the 1950s, Peyton Place.

I had read the book at a very young age, during lazy, scorching afternoons, in my hometown of Kolkata. The book's contents had shocked me.

I have a hazy memory of the book's details, and only recall an impression of encountering scenes of sexual violence. The word "rapista" had nauseated me.

Essentially, the novel brings to the surface the violence embedded in the structures of small town life in America; the violence comes across as very masculine and consequently very gendered.

Critics, revisiting the novel 50 years later, have compared Grace Metalious to Jacqueline Susann. Coincidentally my father's bookcase was graced by the presence of Susann's novels as well.

The violence of the novel notwithstanding, Peyton Place had strong women characters.

Susann's novels both exploit and champion women, and the duality of her treatment of women comes through pretty starkly in Valley of the Dolls.

Perhaps it's the presence of strong women characters that drew my father to a novel like Peyton Place?

Additionally, Peyton Place, a bestseller of its time, defied the dominant image of America as a place of boundless freedom and happiness. It showed America as petty, dysfunctional; a society riven internally.

My father had a rebellious spirit; it had simmered inside of him. Peyton Place was a novel by a rebellious female author, a rarity of her time and gave a contrarian picture of a nation that folks had inordinately hero-worshipped in Socialist India.

I plan to re-read Peyton Place.