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Nora, Nora
Peyton is not ready to share her widowed father with anyone, let alone a barely remembered cousin who just rolled into town, a cousin who smokes cigarettes and drives a pink Thunderbird. However, her father seems to like Nora well enough, and she does make for good conversation at the Losers Club, and prim Aunt Augusta hates her, which raises Nora slightly in Peyton's esteem. Maybe she isn't so bad -- maybe Nora is just what quiet Lytton, Georgia, needs this summer.
I set this story back in my own dreaming, small-town South, in my own time, 1961: that suspended time swung between two epochs that shaped America for good and all. I think I chose it because that turbulent transition was the greatest epiphany of my life, a crossing from the sweet, insular world I knew to another one, volatile and frightening and yet entirely necessary and right. --Anne Rivers Siddons
The whole household is revitalized by Nora's energy, and when she takes a job teaching the first integrated honors class at the local high school, it looks as if she might stay on forever. But soon it becomes clear that something is troubling Nora deeply. Peyton believes that whatever it is, it must be more than the snide comments made by neighbors who don't like her "unsouthern" ways. Nora always laughs that off. It has to be something from her past that's bothering her, something she is running away from. When the shocking truth comes to light, it stuns the residents of their small segregated town. It also teaches Peyton the enormous cost of loving -- and the necessity of doing it anyway.
263 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
249 people are currently reading
888 people want to read
About the author
Anne Rivers Siddons
50 books1,256 followersBorn 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 205 reviews
May 17, 2018
Sometimes I think my taste for reading is fading, until I read a book and wind up liking it, which renews my hope and reminds me I'm probably just reading the wrong books.
Siddons writes in the believable style of a precocious 12-year-old girl, so I could get inside Peyton's head. Her character is vividly drawn as the quiet, timid yet stubborn girl who obstinately identifies as a misfit, refusing her obnoxiously feminine aunt's attempts to make her into a "lady." Peyton warms to the newcomer with un-Southern ways, who is utterly unlike Peyton except that they both are uninterested in letting other people tell them what to do.
This book did not strike me as sticking to a blueprint. I was worried for a while that Nora, as a Blithe Spirit, would turn into an infallible, Christ-like figure, but Siddons found the right combination of making her a free-wheeling revolutionary and flawed. Peyton herself was a demonstration that female characters do not need to be outspoken or scrappy to be complex and independent. (That's one thing that bothers me about relatively recent media: it's assumed that girls and women have to be highly opinionated and unafraid to get in fights, if they're going to be liberated. Otherwise, they're self-loathing victims of internalized misogyny. This is what Aunt Augusta can't understand, and what the formulaic Strong Women are supposed to show: there's more than one way to be a woman.) Some reviewers have said she was annoyingly insecure, but that's the point - she IS that way in the beginning. A major portion of the book deals with her learning to gain confidence as she sheds her old identity and perception of herself.
Peyton's described as a favorite target of school bullies, but I wish there had been specific scenes about this told from her point of view. It would have helped to give perspective on her unhappiness at school, as well as why she has so little self-respect at the novel's beginning. School is a huge part of kids' lives in the first place, and its impact on Peyton made Siddons' largely excluding it from the narrative even more frustrating.
I was a little disappointed with the ending, because given the blurb, I had expected a shattering conclusion. Now that I think about it though, looking at everything that came before it, it might be less necessarily upbeat than appeared at first. Which makes me feel better about it, oddly.
Nora, Nora isn't my new shelf resident, but it's a touching coming-of-age novel addressing adolescent insecurity and isolation, role models, growing out of childhood attachments, and forging an identity. I heard Anne Rivers Siddons was a classic writer, so I'm glad to have been introduced to her, and hope to enjoy another of her books as much in the future.
COMMENT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE FINISHED IT:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Nora as a person is so hard to hold on to that I wonder if Peyton's and her father's quest to make her a part of their lives again isn't a lost cause. If she wouldn't even stay in Cuba for her son and the man she loved, why would she give up her itinerant lifestyle for people she just met a year or so ago? Peyton said at one point that even though loving people means you will lose them eventually, you do it anyway because there isn't anything else. I wonder if Siddons meant to say not that Nora would settle down with them for good (as I thought at first), but that although there is a good chance they will lose her again, they will take the risk because not trying at all would be worse.
It always pleases me when there is more than one way to interpret something. :)
Siddons writes in the believable style of a precocious 12-year-old girl, so I could get inside Peyton's head. Her character is vividly drawn as the quiet, timid yet stubborn girl who obstinately identifies as a misfit, refusing her obnoxiously feminine aunt's attempts to make her into a "lady." Peyton warms to the newcomer with un-Southern ways, who is utterly unlike Peyton except that they both are uninterested in letting other people tell them what to do.
This book did not strike me as sticking to a blueprint. I was worried for a while that Nora, as a Blithe Spirit, would turn into an infallible, Christ-like figure, but Siddons found the right combination of making her a free-wheeling revolutionary and flawed. Peyton herself was a demonstration that female characters do not need to be outspoken or scrappy to be complex and independent. (That's one thing that bothers me about relatively recent media: it's assumed that girls and women have to be highly opinionated and unafraid to get in fights, if they're going to be liberated. Otherwise, they're self-loathing victims of internalized misogyny. This is what Aunt Augusta can't understand, and what the formulaic Strong Women are supposed to show: there's more than one way to be a woman.) Some reviewers have said she was annoyingly insecure, but that's the point - she IS that way in the beginning. A major portion of the book deals with her learning to gain confidence as she sheds her old identity and perception of herself.
Peyton's described as a favorite target of school bullies, but I wish there had been specific scenes about this told from her point of view. It would have helped to give perspective on her unhappiness at school, as well as why she has so little self-respect at the novel's beginning. School is a huge part of kids' lives in the first place, and its impact on Peyton made Siddons' largely excluding it from the narrative even more frustrating.
I was a little disappointed with the ending, because given the blurb, I had expected a shattering conclusion. Now that I think about it though, looking at everything that came before it, it might be less necessarily upbeat than appeared at first. Which makes me feel better about it, oddly.
Nora, Nora isn't my new shelf resident, but it's a touching coming-of-age novel addressing adolescent insecurity and isolation, role models, growing out of childhood attachments, and forging an identity. I heard Anne Rivers Siddons was a classic writer, so I'm glad to have been introduced to her, and hope to enjoy another of her books as much in the future.
COMMENT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE FINISHED IT:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Nora as a person is so hard to hold on to that I wonder if Peyton's and her father's quest to make her a part of their lives again isn't a lost cause. If she wouldn't even stay in Cuba for her son and the man she loved, why would she give up her itinerant lifestyle for people she just met a year or so ago? Peyton said at one point that even though loving people means you will lose them eventually, you do it anyway because there isn't anything else. I wonder if Siddons meant to say not that Nora would settle down with them for good (as I thought at first), but that although there is a good chance they will lose her again, they will take the risk because not trying at all would be worse.
It always pleases me when there is more than one way to interpret something. :)
August 10, 2010
I just finished Nora Nora, by Anne Rivers Siddon, and absolutely loved
it! Excellent, poignant book, deal with relationships, love, betrayal,
education, poverty, racial issues, through the eyes of a
twelve-year-old girl. (Not a kids book!)
it! Excellent, poignant book, deal with relationships, love, betrayal,
education, poverty, racial issues, through the eyes of a
twelve-year-old girl. (Not a kids book!)
February 8, 2014
After a very slow start and an annoying, negative child the book finally starts going about 150 pages in. If you can stay the course it's not a bad book. I think the whole book boils down to if you expect too much of others you will always be disappointed.
July 26, 2018
I loved this book. It is set in the little town of Lytton Georgia. Peyton has lived there all of her 12 years. She lives with her father in a house that also used to have her mother and her brother living in it too. Unfortunatly Peyton's mother died just after she was born, she believes, during her birth, so she assumes that she killed her mother. Her father never told her the circumstances of her mother's death, probably because it was too painful for him. Then her brother dies while in the service and this leaves there household a very quiet place, since neither of them really speak to one and other. Peyton's father is confinced by her Aunt Agnes that she needs a female role model in her life, and that it should be her. They try one trip to Atlanta, but it's an unmittigated disaster so Peyton's dad gets in touch with her cousin Nora. Nora is in her late 20's or early 30's, and has lived in many places, including Cuba, and arrives in a whirlwind in a pink t-bird, smoking cigarettes and wearing t-shirts and jeans. She ends up teaching the first integrated high school class in Lytton, along with teaching Peyton and her dad how to enjoy life again. This is a great book it's set in the early 60's and shows a lot of the southern lifestyle during that time.
May 16, 2018
Interesting and entertaining every page. Nora blew into the lives of widower and almost teen daughter, Peyton. They both can use a bit of excitement in their very small town , Nora provides just that not only for the little family but the entire town,
Loved this book, so much going on from the segregation that was newly recognized to the freedom of individuals. women were specially considered to not be free to act on their own.
Loved, loved the ending. Was so afraid that they all were going to let Nora slip away.
Loved this book, so much going on from the segregation that was newly recognized to the freedom of individuals. women were specially considered to not be free to act on their own.
Loved, loved the ending. Was so afraid that they all were going to let Nora slip away.
February 4, 2011
I didn't actually read this. After 3 semi interesting pages all the sudden there were 10+ F words on one page.... It just made me so angry. Does anyone want to read that? Really?
June 10, 2018
A coming of age story set in a small southern town in 1961. Peyton is 12 y.o. who lives with her widowed father and a black housekeeper/cook who's been in Peyton's life since she was a baby. They are visited by Nora, her mother's cousin, who's everything a good Southern woman shouldn't be; irreveverent, smoking, drinking, a free spirit. And a keeper of secrets. Life is never the same after Nora spends several months with the family. Easy to read, characters are believable and likeable, and the story captures the essence of that era well.
August 24, 2019
When I first started reading this, I found it to be just so-so. I wasn’t quite to the halfway point when it finally started picking up. This is a little different than the other books by this author. Turned out to be quite good.
September 20, 2023
By the time Nora roars up in her pink Thunderbird, you are as ready for her exuberant presence as Peyton McKenzie is. A coming of age story set during the early 1960s south, it’s a sort of Secret Lives of Bees meets To Kill a Mockingbird. Siddons’s skill with metaphor is masterful, and you’ll remember the characters for a long time. You might also remember her narrator’s use of the word simian to describe a black child’s hands, even though the story is clearly meant to be anti-racist. I loved everything else about the book.
July 27, 2008
Almost Sweetwater creek but a much better surprise ending.
December 6, 2017
Onvan : Nora, Nora - Nevisande : Anne Rivers Siddons - ISBN : 61093335 - ISBN13 : 9780061093333 - Dar 480 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2000
Want to read
September 5, 2019Too much bad language for enjoyable reading
May 13, 2020
Een mooi verhaal, verfrissend.
September 16, 2024
After 100 pages there was nothing to make me want to finish this book.
April 24, 2025
Blurbs on this books cover tout it as a quintessential “beach book” but I disagree. While it is very breezy in tone, it tackles some serious topics such as puberty, family, grief, and racism in the early post segregation era of a small town in the south.
Told through the eyes of a young girl, straddling the line between childhood and adolescence, my heart went out to little Peyton and her struggles with finding her place in the world and in a family rocked by immense grief due the tragic deaths of her mother and brother. And yet even when I was rooting for her, she infuriated me with her petty childishness and surly behavior towards others at times.
Nora, the titular character, was handled with a sense of wonder and love as expected from being viewed as the hero in the heart of Peyton’s viewpoint. I enjoyed her sass and determination.
My only true qualm of the story lies with the circumstances surrounding Peyton’s mother’s death. When the true cause of her demise is revealed to Peyton later in the book, I frankly found it ridiculous, especially as someone who had just given birth less than six months ago and am freshly familiar with the challenges of childbirth and its after effects. Spoilers here:
To presume a woman who had just given birth to run off to have a tryst with her clandestine lover immediately afterwards is truly absurd. And that she would then promptly perish from said tryst due to a uncontrollable bleed seems like unnecessary punishment for her wicked ways and a bizarre way to explain why Peyton grows up assuming her birth was the cause of her mother’s death and to consequently absolve her of any perceived guilt or responsibility for it. Truly nonsensical.
Told through the eyes of a young girl, straddling the line between childhood and adolescence, my heart went out to little Peyton and her struggles with finding her place in the world and in a family rocked by immense grief due the tragic deaths of her mother and brother. And yet even when I was rooting for her, she infuriated me with her petty childishness and surly behavior towards others at times.
Nora, the titular character, was handled with a sense of wonder and love as expected from being viewed as the hero in the heart of Peyton’s viewpoint. I enjoyed her sass and determination.
My only true qualm of the story lies with the circumstances surrounding Peyton’s mother’s death. When the true cause of her demise is revealed to Peyton later in the book, I frankly found it ridiculous, especially as someone who had just given birth less than six months ago and am freshly familiar with the challenges of childbirth and its after effects. Spoilers here:
To presume a woman who had just given birth to run off to have a tryst with her clandestine lover immediately afterwards is truly absurd. And that she would then promptly perish from said tryst due to a uncontrollable bleed seems like unnecessary punishment for her wicked ways and a bizarre way to explain why Peyton grows up assuming her birth was the cause of her mother’s death and to consequently absolve her of any perceived guilt or responsibility for it. Truly nonsensical.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 18, 2019
This story was like a timepiece, a frozen glimpse back to the Holly Go Lightly, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" 1960's. It's a coming of age story of a young girl in small town Georgia who is visited by her sophisticated and worldly cousin Nora. Naturally there's lots of bigotry, small mindedness and ignorance, as those were not the carefree and simple days they are often promoted to be. There was a post war meanness and intolerance, despite the surface Sears Roebuck, "Happy Days" normalcy and complacency.
Anne Rivers Siddons is one of those 'sneaky good' authors. Her stories are simple, her characters well developed and there is a descriptive flair that is unusually strong for this type of novel. There was a lot of cliche and stereotypical events, but then there usually are in stories from this time frame. Published in 2000, Siddons lived those days and like many of us, enjoy the clarity of hindsight. But it's also a story often told.
I enjoyed the easy read, the glimpse back and the occasional barb of insight and wisdom. There's nothing particularly new or startling here, but it's not at all a waste of time either.
Anne Rivers Siddons is one of those 'sneaky good' authors. Her stories are simple, her characters well developed and there is a descriptive flair that is unusually strong for this type of novel. There was a lot of cliche and stereotypical events, but then there usually are in stories from this time frame. Published in 2000, Siddons lived those days and like many of us, enjoy the clarity of hindsight. But it's also a story often told.
I enjoyed the easy read, the glimpse back and the occasional barb of insight and wisdom. There's nothing particularly new or startling here, but it's not at all a waste of time either.
October 23, 2019
Ezt a könyvet is Bogas miatt szerettem volna elolvasni*, szintén egy általa írt ismertető miatt. Hát, hol is kezdjem? Tetszett a könyv, alig bírtam letenni, nagyon kíváncsi voltam, mi fog történni, mert folyton ott bujkált a sorok között a tragédia előszele, biztos voltam benne, hogy valami nagyon rossz fog történni a végén. A lezárás ennek ellenére azért nem tragikus, bár kérdéses, hogy a vége valóban megtörtént-e, vagy átvitt értelmű.
Nora… Néhol utáltam, néhol szerettem. Valahogy úgy voltam ezzel, mint Peyton. És kicsit olyan érzésem volt, hogy nem mindig a valódi arcát mutatja. Sőt, inkább egyáltalán nem mutatja. Mintha a viselkedésével, személyiségével akarná elterelni a figyelmet arról, milyen ő valójában, vagy inkább, milyen titkokat rejteget magában.
Ja, és nem voltam meglepve, hogy vörös a haja, már megfigyeltem, hogy az ilyen „másmilyen” meg „különleges” embereknek vörös haja van :)
*Később kiderült, nem ő írta az ajánlót, de egyszer már elkezdte ezt a könyvet, csak félbehagyta.
Nora… Néhol utáltam, néhol szerettem. Valahogy úgy voltam ezzel, mint Peyton. És kicsit olyan érzésem volt, hogy nem mindig a valódi arcát mutatja. Sőt, inkább egyáltalán nem mutatja. Mintha a viselkedésével, személyiségével akarná elterelni a figyelmet arról, milyen ő valójában, vagy inkább, milyen titkokat rejteget magában.
Ja, és nem voltam meglepve, hogy vörös a haja, már megfigyeltem, hogy az ilyen „másmilyen” meg „különleges” embereknek vörös haja van :)
*Később kiderült, nem ő írta az ajánlót, de egyszer már elkezdte ezt a könyvet, csak félbehagyta.
August 23, 2023
I used to read books by this Georgia writer quite often (before goodreads, apparently, because I only found one of hers on the list of my read books) and I’m not sure why I all but stopped. I don’t remember making a conscious decision based on not liking her novels, so I probably moved on to other authors and forgot. I checked this one out of the library in desperation after none of the books on my TBR were available. I’m glad that I did because I felt at home reading about a fictitious small town in Georgia. Some things Siddons got exactly right, while others were, I felt, improbable for the setting and time period (after all, this story was set in the 60s and I lived that decade in one of those aforementioned small towns in Georgia as a child). The familiarity of the setting aside, I can’t say I enjoyed much of this story. I didn’t care for the title character; I have no problem with flawed people but when the flaws are flaunted I begin to have issues. There were enough things I liked to earn one of those middle-of-the-road ratings I seem to use a lot, three stars.
July 2, 2017
I really enjoyed this book about a young girl coming of age in a small town in either Georgia or Alabama, set in the early 1960s. Raised by her father after her mother died in childbirth, Peyton is a loner and a self-described "loser." In fact, she is a member of a small, but "exclusive" club named the Losers' Club: total membership-3.
Peyton's life begins to change when a long-lost cousin in her early 30s comes for an extended visit. Nora dances to a different drummer, to put it mildly. Soon, she has the town talking about her antics, led by Peyton's mean and uppity aunt.
This is a great read, particularly from someone from the South. Highly recommended.
Peyton's life begins to change when a long-lost cousin in her early 30s comes for an extended visit. Nora dances to a different drummer, to put it mildly. Soon, she has the town talking about her antics, led by Peyton's mean and uppity aunt.
This is a great read, particularly from someone from the South. Highly recommended.
August 16, 2019
In 1961 Lytton, Georgia seventh grader Peyton McKenzie lives with her widower father Frazier. Peyton's cousin, free spirited Nora Findlay, arrives and shakes up the household and the townsfolk with her ideas on racial equality and her open lifestyle. The novel centers on life in a small Georgia town at the beginning of the civil rights movement. Nora is warm and humorous as she stirs up the townsfolk who either back her antics or loathe her for representing the end of a lifestyle. The secondary players add depth to the atmosphere as well as a better understanding of the three lead characters. Anne Rivers Siddons brings a bygone era alive with her wonderful period piece.
May 21, 2021
I found this book in the "beach reading" shelf on vacation and really enjoyed it. It brought back memories of 1961 in the south, segregated schools, and Jackie Kennedy as the trend-setter in fashion. Most of all, seeing the world through 12-year-old Peyton's eyes was both heartbreaking and delightful. Her declaration early in the book that she "killed her mother" because her mother died in childbirth . . . it had never occurred to me that a child might feel responsible in that situation.
Nora and her pink T-bird are a breath of fresh air. Her bra-less, devil-may-care attitude had me cheering throughout the book. I will read more Anne Rivers Siddons.
Nora and her pink T-bird are a breath of fresh air. Her bra-less, devil-may-care attitude had me cheering throughout the book. I will read more Anne Rivers Siddons.
November 19, 2025
Nora,Nora has a different feel from the other half dozen Siddons books I’ve read. Being in the young Peyton’s first person thoughts was not too relatable for me. From my perspective she is just a very insecure, odd duck. I actually didn’t like her spoiled ways. Stories that focus on a main character’s psychological struggles irritate me and I don’t enjoy them. Maybe I’m too secure 🧐
Nora was fun as was Trailways the kitty. Not my favorite Anne Rivers book but the story has a nice uniqueness that I welcomed.
Nora was fun as was Trailways the kitty. Not my favorite Anne Rivers book but the story has a nice uniqueness that I welcomed.
November 30, 2025
Another Anne Rivers Siddon book. Published in 2009, it confronts race inequality issues in a smaller town. Nora is a relative of Peyton’s mother, who died when she was a day or two old. Peyton is a teenager. Nora is a free spirit with progressive ideas; she volunteers to teach black children. Peyton idolizes Nora and secretly hopes she’ll stay and live with her, her father and their black maid, Chloe. Many of the book’s societal problems have, over the past 15 years, been more or less ameliorated. This made the book seem old fashioned but I enjoyed the story.
December 22, 2019
An acquaintance suggested that this was a good book to read. At first I was a bit skeptical; the protagonist was a whiny young girl, no mother, father who tended to ignore her, and bullied at school. But with the advent of an unknown cousin, Nora, her life begins to change in various ways. It was an interesting take on the separation of races in the South even though the Civil Rights Act had already passed--but 'not come to their town.'
February 4, 2020
Well, I liked it. It doesn’t feel original. The characters are archetypal. But that’s okay. The story has lift. It flies. Nora is light and dark, free and hobbled, and let’s agree that there are more opposites, and call it good. I thought maybe the author had erred in referencing To Kill a Mockingbird before it was written, but I was wrong. This story takes place in 1961 and TKAM was published in 1960. Phew. That would be embarrassing.
November 29, 2022
Anne Rivers Siddons is my favorite author of all time!. Story centers around a family of a father raising his daughter of about 12,/13 yrs, she is awkward, in pigtails, an aunt who is rigid and scolding. until a distant cousin visits, moves in. She has lived everywhere. Her shockimg pink Thunderbird comes with her. She traveled with some nice men friends.
This is a story about love of family, the Old South.
and It hit me close to home. lots of joy, lots of tears.
This is a story about love of family, the Old South.
and It hit me close to home. lots of joy, lots of tears.
March 2, 2018
A lovely coming-of-age story of a 12-year old girl in 1960s Georgia. Peyton struggles with her diminished self image and her place in school and society. Her older cousin, Nora, comes on the scene in a pink Thunderbird which itself announces the arrival of a very non-Southern lady in the conservative, racial community. Nora paves the way for Peyton to awareness of the secrets they both carry in their respective lives.
June 22, 2018
Definitely not my favorite Siddons book but a fine vacation read. I'm still not sure what to make of Nora but there were glimpses of true character. I wish there'd been more character development of many of the side characters, like Boots, Ernie and Charlotte. Nana, too. For such a long book I didn't get enough of those around Peyton.
December 10, 2018
This was not one of my more favorite of this author's books. The story was interesting, but too dragged out and I didn't like any of the characters ( except her paternal grandmother, she was interesting - although she did not have a big part of this story ). I felt bad for Peyton, but some of her issues were self-inflicted emotional pain.
February 9, 2021
I always enjoy Siddons books, love her writing style. Although I was never bullied, I was shy and sometimes felt like a misfit so I identified with Peyton in that respect. Nora swooped in and changed Peyton’s life, and she and her father changed Nora in some respects. A nice coming of age story with interesting characters and of course a few secrets that are slowly revealed.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 205 reviews