Benton’s Row

Name: Benton’s Row
Rating: 3.62 (141 reviews)

by Frank Yerby

First published 1954

Amazon

3.5(141)

In 1842 Tom Benton rides into Louisiana’s Red River Valley ahead of a Texas posse and begins taking the land, relationships and authority he wants by force of personality and violence. His household expands around legitimate and illegitimate children whose rivalries ensure that the consequences of his choices continue long after the first generation.
The novel is built as a Southern family saga rather than a single-event historical adventure. Beginning in the antebellum bayou country, it follows the Bentons through changing social conditions as inheritance, race, sexuality and family secrecy repeatedly reshape the clan. Yerby uses the dynasty to show how power acquired on a fluid frontier hardens into social hierarchy—and how unresolved conflicts pass from parents to children.