Monday, May 23, 2011

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown, 320 pp.

It feels like I should begin this post with a quote from Shakespeare; no matter what I'd pick, Eleanor Brown probably used it in The Weird Sisters. The WSs are the daughters of a Shakespeare scholar and professor at a small-town college in Ohio. For various reasons, but most importantly the illness of their mother, the three converge on their family home. The professor/father speaks--I'm pretty sure--exclusively by quoting Shakespeare; his daughters speak elsewise but are quick with a quote amongst themselves and their parents. They all read avidly, thirstily, naturally, constantly. For them it's like breathing. In that way, they are all the same; in other ways, the sisters are doggedly determined to carve out their differences. In the end, they find, as many of us do, that "birds of a feather" (there. Isn't that Shakespeare?) can try to force an identity that has nothing to do with one's family of origin, but that ultimately, we come from the same bunch of feathers and we don't always get to pick which feather will define us best. I found this family so so so endearing, and yet just this side of annoying. I can't imagine writing this book 1) for having ready access to all the Shaekspeare and 2) for a narrative trick I loved but can't imagine employing so unfailingly: the story is told by all three sisters at once, the personal pronouns being plural throughout. This is a clever and fun book, well worth the time spent.

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