Pulitzer Prize Fiction Winner
A Summons to Memphis
by Peter Taylor
Summary
A middle aged New York editor's sisters call him back to Memphis to help block their elderly father's plans to remarry, prompting a slow excavation of an old family wound stretching back to the family's forced move from Nashville decades earlier. Taylor's measured, conversational prose patiently exposes the hierarchies and resentments of Upper South gentility. The novel is a representative late masterpiece of his quiet, story driven art.
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Historical Context & Significance
Taylor mastered the Southern gentility story. This win late in his life served as a tribute to his career long focus on the domestic tensions of the upper class South.