Colony

by Anne Rivers Siddons

An unforgettable story of love, acceptance, and tradition. When Maude Chambliss first arrives at Retreat, the seasonal home of her husband's aristocratic family, she is a nineteen-year-old bride fresh from South Carolina's Low Country. Among the patrician men and women who reside in the summer colony on the coast of Maine, her gypsy-like beauty and impulsive behavior immediately brand her an outsider. She, as well as everyone else, is certain she will never fit in. And of course, she doesn't...at first. But over the many summers she spends there, Maude comes to cherish life in the colony, as she does the people who share it with her. There is her husband Peter, consumed with a darkness of spirit; her adored but dangerously fragile children; her domineering mother-in-law, who teaches her that it is the women who posses the strength to keep the colony intact; and Maine native Micah Willis, who is ultimately Maude's truest friend. This brilliant novel, rich with emotion, is filled with appealing, intense, and indomitable characters. Anne Rivers Siddons paints a portrait of a woman determined to preserve the spirit of past generations--and the future of aplaice where she became who she is...a place called Colony . "An outstanding multigenerational novel...We are hooked from the moment we meet Maude."The New York Times

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction, Southern, Chick Lit, Contemporary, Beach Reads

576 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Born Sybil Anne Rivers in Atlanta, Georgia, she was raised in Fairburn, Georgia, and attended Auburn University, where she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta Sorority.

While at Auburn she wrote a column for the student newspaper, The Auburn Plainsman, that favored integration. The university administration attempted to suppress the column, and ultimately fired her, and the column garnered national attention. She later became a senior editor for Atlanta magazine.

At the age of thirty she married Heyward Siddons, and she and her husband lived in Charleston, South Carolina, and spent summers in Maine. Siddons died of lung cancer on September 11, 2019

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, this is without a doubt Siddons' best book . I have re-read it twice now, and still enjoy every page. Highly recommended for exquisite descriptions of the coastal area of Maine, for a detailing of the privileged lives of those summering in that area and their relationship to the people who live in the town all year, and mostly for the wonderful story of Maude Chambliss and her family.

[Madi J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it.

I've read on my Nook for years, but I have a hard cover copy of this book and I honestly think there is no better way to read Anne Rivers Siddons than an actual physical book with yellowed pages and a glass of Merlot.. or two.. or hell, an entire bottle... ;)

This is a long one, but definitely my favorite ARS to date, and I've read, and loved, quite a few.

I find it hard to articulate exactly what I like so much about Anne Rivers Siddons, and Colony in particular, but I do know it all has to do with the style of writing and the realness of the words and characters and just the timelessness of it all. I love that I can be reading something written decades ago about things that took place a hundred years ago and it all rings true..and resonates.

But I think what I like most about these books, and especially Colony, is the transportation it gives. Look at me, all relaxed and whatnot, from spending a weekend reading a book.. I really feel like I've spent the weekend at Retreat!

Definitely makes my top 10 favorites books list.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I mostly enjoyed it. It's definitely pulpy and soap-opera-ish in places (there was one scene where Maude shoots a German spy who had washed ashore from a U-boat or some shit and invaded her home and honestly it's hilariously ridiculous). Also the snobby maneuverings of WASP summer vacationers are not nearly as interesting or poignant as Siddons wants them to be, and the story does tend to drag on. The book definitely would have been better if it was about two hundred pages shorter.

That said, it was entertaining and held my interest well until the last third of the book, so if you just want something kind of dramatic but still well written, this ain't a bad one.

[D Thasfun · Rating 5 out of 5]

My all time favorite book! The author's writing resonates with me. I feel myself immersed in the stories and they become part of me. I think a small part of that is that Anne Rivers-Siddons is Southern, as am I. The writing just flows for me. I do not find that at all with British authors, for example.
I am a beach baby, having spent my first few years of life playing at the beach. I love the sea and she captures it so vividly - the smell, the quality of the light on the water, the sounds, and the feel of the air.
The story line begins with an outsider drawn into a different world, where she assimilates, yet keeps her spirit. I find many parallels between my journey and Maude's.
I have read the book several times, and it has a featured spot on my bookshelf. I listened to it on Books on Tape. I just purchased the Kindle version. Colony is that meaningful to me. I love it.

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

SPOILER ALERT


The multi-generational saga I've just completed nearly earned five stars. It beautifully chronicles Maude's life from the age of 18 in her husband's cherished Maine, particularly in the Cape Rosier area. Those familiar with the locale will connect, yet one wonders if the country clubs are truly as depicted. I wished the story would never end; however, upon reflection, it fell short of a five-star rating due to the portrayal of weak men and women throughout the story, Maude, Darcy and Micah being the exceptions. The narrative's structure and timeline initially required some adjustment, but Ms. Siddons' exceptional writing captivated me. Despite my usual aversion to tales of dysfunctional families, the abundant love, acceptance, and resolve demonstrated by Maude, a southern girl with unwavering self-belief, was extremely moving right until the end.

[Bibliophile · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to double check to make sure this really was written in 1992. It reads more like a product of the fifties with its stereotyping. Men are weak and can't help themselves (infidelity, attempted rape, domestic abuse), so the women must be strong and suffer stoically (their reward is to become queen bee of the sea resort and rule over seating arrangements). Also, they must fight the forces of evil Jezebels who try to steal their feckless husbands.

I knew this wasn't for me, but one becomes desperate for reading material when chained to the sickbed. This is, however, exactly like the stuff I used to read as an impressionable kid. How I am not a self-hating wreck is beyond me.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Trying to find an author like Rosamunde Pilcher but no one ever measures up. This was a good soap opera but a bit unsatisfying. At 500 pages it covers a lot of ground (time and characters), and you only get to know some of the characters very superficially. It’s also too melodramatic at points. But it was easy and fun to read, and that is what I was in the mood for!

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

A sweet fictional story about a Georgian woman's life amongst the moneyed coastal colonies of Maine in the mid 20th century. The writing is good but this lengthy book is tedious at times and lacks a strong story arc. So unless you fall in love with the main character, truly despise the selfish mother-in-law Hannah or enjoy the real life references to the coastal Maine towns for example it might feel flat.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books ever. Details the lives of a Boston family through 3 generations, anchored around their summer home at The Colony, a tight knit retreat in Maine founded by their family and many of their upper-echelon peers. Maude, the central character, is a girl from Charleston, South Carolina who marries into the family and struggles to find her place in a vastly different environment and family dynamic.

Siddons has had many successes at writing the nuance of relationships, but for me the settings and characters of this particular novel are her best and resonate the most with me.

[Heather Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in college and honestly, the characters have stayed with me throughout my life. A bit graphic at times, but the plot is truly spellbinding and you can't stop till you reach the (bitter? happy? I won't tell!) end. Love the way Siddons throws in twists you can't see coming. This is one of the few books I re-read periodically.

[Sheri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmmm... Can't quite decide how I feel about this book. On one hand, I liked the descriptions and was really able to feel I was in Maine on a vacation. On the other hand, it was a place I'm not sure I wanted to be. This family and the others in the Colony looked so pretty and put together on the outside, but on the inside there is so much sin and consequence. I thought that it was good in that it didn't gloss over the terrible road bad choices can take someone on - but it also made me sad that the characters in the novel kept taking such pride in their "inner strength" when humility might have been the better direction. They also seemed to equate atheism with strength and I don't equate those things at all.

[Ginny Guerry]

The only book I've ever read that remotely reminded me of my summer compound - Camp Randolph - in Vt. The matriarchs rule and the sense of community endures at a time when we no longer live down the street from our grandparents. During our summer stays (my mother grew up here, I grew up here, my kids grew up here) in this magical place where you catch fireflies for fun and stay outdoors from sun up to the most beautiful sunsets on the planet.

This book is rich with memorable characters as they span nearly 70 years filled with love, heartache, tradition, and complicated relationships in a beautiful setting - searching for peace? Aren't we all...

[Judy Churchill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn’t the first book I’ve read by Anne Rivers Siddons but it might be the best. The story revolves around four generations of one family who summer in an exclusive seaside resort in rugged Maine. The family struggles, the losses, the betrayals, the births and celebrations are all portrayed beautifully. It is an elegantly written book.

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book of all time. I reread it every few years.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely a "beach read"! If you're not reading it on a beach, you'll be on one, anyway, through the imagery presented in the book!

A very sheltered, naive-to-the-ways-of-the- world young bride of the South Carolina Low Country is brought home to her in-laws'family clan, near Boston. Soon after arriving, she finds out what she is "up against": This colony is a society unto itself; a family where rules are unspoken, and the roles clearly established through the matriarchs who are deferred to by young and old alike,and tended to by the younger females who are in servitude to them until they are old enough to be served by the next generation. The story follows the lives of the families; their joys, heartaches, bitterness, triumphs.

There is enough drama in this story to qualify it as the book version of a "soap opera"; although a much more delightful one! I have read this book 3 times, cover-to-cover, and I enjoyed it just as much, the third time, as I did the first.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The prose here can be dense, particularly at the beginning when Siddons spends a lot of time describing houses and streets and swamps and beaches and cliffs. She's not bad at description -- there's a solid late-twentieth-century occasionally-literary middlebrow quality to her writing -- but the first fifty or so pages felt like a slog.

Once it starts getting soapy, though, it's hard to put down; it's a nearly perfect beach read. So much drama for one family! Ultimately all those descriptions paid off, because I have a very vivid picture of Retreat, the characters' summer "colony," in my mind.

[Furrawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books by this author. Family dynamics are dissected and put on display for all to see here. What happens when a child and mother don't bond. How do families encompass love and hate at the same time. How do they cope with tragedy? Joy? How do the generations intermingle and affect one another?

Perfectly wonderful book. Easy to fall into like a pool book except this is absolutely literature.

[Carolyn F. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook

Thank goodness this was abridged! So melodramatic. And the granddaughter Darcy, why give it up when she knows what horrible things will happen? So therefore, I thought at the end of the book, "They're all screwed." Not a nice way to think of what is going to happen next. 2-1/2 stars

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-reading this for about the sixth time...definitely satisfying my need for the perfect summer read. I think Siddons is great--such a happy facade in her protagnoists, but there is always some intrigue and deception happening on the inside. Her books never get old and are favorites to re-read.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't even believe I finished this train wreck of a book. I think after the first then second stupid thing happened I wanted to see how ridiculous it could get. Weak men, heartbreak and pain at the summer house yet everyone keeps coming back for more.

[Rosemary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok story. Tries to be a sweeping generational novel but ends up more like a really thick soap opera.

[Kammy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rich people on their summer island in Maine and their selfish and petty ways. I didn't feel much sympathy for most of the characters. Not sure why I felt obligated to slog through the whole book-

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I go back and read this every few years. I can just put myself there on the coast of Maine.

[Roni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great summer read and depth of characters! A story of a Southern woman who marries into a wealthy Boston family. They spends summers on an island off the coast of Maine each year, as she narrates the life, love, and tragedies across the generations within the close-knit summer community.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to be in the mood for a Rivers-Siddons book and can't read two in a row. Her writing is so dense it cannot be read quickly. The plot of the story becomes hidden in the rich descriptions. But, when I am in the mood, I love it. I can actually go to "Retreat" colony in my mind now, thanks to her - and it is a place of sanctuary.

The beginning of this 600 page book is hard to get into at first. The beginning doesn't even particularly make sense (and can't, really. Siddons is doing this on purpose.) I had to go back partway through the book and read the start again and then the lightbulb came on.

While most of the characters are disturbingly flawed, there is still a lot of hope shining in Maude, the main character. She keeps me reading on. I find that life - and especially people - can be greatly disappointing, but she gives a vantage point that helped me see how to survive (and thrive) through those times, those people.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this on my TBR shelf since 1996 (!) when I received it as a gift. I was sure I wouldn't like it, but for some reason, I kept it.

The story of the indomitable Maude who leaves Charleston SC, when she marries the aristocratic Peter Chambliss of Boston. It covers decades and is set in Retreat a town in Maine that functions both as a fishing village and a retreat for wealthy and aristocratic folks from the Northeast. It is a family "saga." The writing is OK, and some of the characters are too good to be true, and some of the action is a little over the top. It is, in short, a soap opera. But it is fun. It is entertaining, and I am so glad I read it. Not everything has to be "literary." There is a place for this kind of book, We should all take some time off a read something that is just plain entertaining. We would all be just a little more relaxed about life.

4 stars.

[Barb Anders · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book almost every summer for the last 20 or so years. Got it from my mom and it has some of her thoughts written in the margins or underlined....one of my treasured books. I don't usually read books a 2nd time, much less 15 or so but ARS writes so beautifully about nature, surroundings, Maine, family, love, friendship, motherhood etc....that I just get lost and find something new every time I read it. Sure, it's a bit soap opera'ish but the main character Maude Chambliss is a hero to me....the summer time spent with family at the colony of Retreat and all the characters that you hear about year after year are so endearing. Hers and Peter's relationship, along with her mother in law, best friend and a whole other cast of characters are wonderful to hear about and grow with. Truly one of my favorite books...

[Kwoomac · Rating 1 out of 5]

Colony follows the life of one woman, Maude, and her husband's family each summer that they spend at their summer retreat in Maine.the whole point of the story seemed to be that women need to be strong because men mess up. Super annoying !

[Sheri · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book seemed to go on forever! I didn't hate it, but for some reason I didn't like it either. It took days to read and I was left with a sense of "So what!" when I finished. There were a few good lines and characters, but many of them were weak and annoying.

[Lorraine Monakey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the hardcover many years ago and it is a book I remember fondly. The main character reminded me of my mother in law and I loved viewing a way of life that has vanished.