Book Review

THE FIERY PANTHEON

Nancy Lemann
Reviewed by Margot Mifflin | Mar 27, 1998

Details Writer: Nancy Lemann; Genre: Fiction

THE FIERY PANTHEON Nancy Lemann (Scribner, $22) At 28, Grace Stewart considers herself ''a prehistoric fossil buried in an antiquated stratum of the earth's core.'' She's engaged to marry a perfect Southern gentleman, but a ''crazed young man'' threatens to steal her heart. Grace's romantic passivity slackens the pace of this novel of manners, and her Old South patriarchal preoccupations make her a relic in more ways than one. But Lemann's New Orleans aristocrats are hilarious, and her writing -- at once wry and sumptuous -- will glue you to your chair with the intoxicating effect of a mint julep on a sultry summer day. B+

Originally posted Mar 27, 1998 Published in issue #424 Mar 27, 1998 Order article reprints

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