Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews “The Seasons of Grace, The Unauthorized Backstory of Peyton Place” by Dave O. Dodge, Sept. 2021. On Tour With Suzy Approved Book Tours

Dave O. Dodge, the author of “The Seasons of Grace, The Unauthorized Backstory of Peyton Place” has written a unique and intriguing novel. The genre for this novel is Historical Fiction and the author writes about a story within a story. The author writes the story of Grace Metalious, the author of “Peyton Place”. During the 1950’s Grace took the world by storm by daring to write about stories in a fictional small town.”Peyton Place”was a best seller, and then was made into a movie. It reminds me of the attention that “Fifty Shades of Grey” received when that came out.

Grace Metalious is described as complex and complicated. The neighbors where she lived felt that she had written about their town, and it became personal. Although Grace maintained that her book was not an autographical book, and was based on a fictitious town, some of the residents became enemies. Grace had few friends. Indirectly, her choice of being a writer, caused her personal life to be like a ‘Peyton Place”. Grace became dependent on people that could rescue her when she had problems.

Dave O. Dodge, does describe how difficult it was for a female author to write and get published. Although Grace did get paid, she was not always financially responsible, and had difficulties. It was also difficult to raise a family and promote a book, and live in a town where people weren’t friendly. Grace did get the taste of some finer things in life, and that caused a problem as well. When Grace was offered the opportunity for “Peyton Place” to be made into a movie, she found that Hollywood was a different type of a stressor, with various personalities to deal with.

For those of you who enjoyed watching “Peyton Place” this is the perfect read to learn about the creator, and I would recommend this book.