Downtown
by Anne Rivers Siddons
List Price: $6.99
Pages: 512
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0061099686
Publisher: HarperCollins
When Smoky O'Donnell, a small-town girl with big-city ambitions, arrives
in Atlanta in the spring of 1966, both she and the city find themselves
on the brink of cataclysmic and irrevocable change. Invited to be a new
writer for the burgeoning Downtown magazine by its eccentric and revolutionary
editor, Matt Comfort, Smoky finds herself thrown into a social and political
whirlwind that is a world apart from her conservative, sheltered family
in Savannah. Embracing the city, and the nascent Civil Rights Movement
that is enveloping it, Smoky rises from caption writer to fearless chronicler
of the Civil Rights Movement as it sweeps through Atlanta, forever transforming
first the once sleepy city, and then the nation. In this tumultuous time
of conflicting passions, Smoky also finds herself torn between three young
men: Brad Hunt, the wealthy young scion of "old Atlanta," who loves Smoky
but fears her passion for her career; Luke Geary, a rakish photojournalist
who becomes her sparring partner both at the magazine and in bed; and
John Howard, the young civil rights activist who works as a right-hand
man to Martin Luther King Jr. Set amidst the swirling melee of the late
'60's, Downtown celebrates and illuminates the extraordinary journey of
Smoky O'Donnell from a sheltered girl to an irrepressible woman, writer,
activist, and lover.
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1. Trace Smoky's involvement in Atlanta's Civil Rights Movement. How do her developing politics affect her life choices? Do Smoky's newfound beliefs require her to make sacrifices? How do they liberate her?
2. How does Smoky navigate her career in the primarily male-dominated world of Downtown? How does she go about gaining the respect of her male boss and peers? When is her womanhood and sexuality an asset? A hindrance? What links can you draw between the Civil Rights Movement and the feminist movement?
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