my books. my life.

“Will alone could not make Rose brave, could not make Bean honest, could not make Cordy sensible. Weren’t we proof of that, this sad sisterhood, bound as much by our failure as by our hopes?” p. 216

Title: The Weird Sisters
Author: Eleanor Brown
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
ISBN: 0316098337
Pages: 336
Year: 2011
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
Source: Library/borrowed ebook
Rating: 5/5

Summary:

Sisters Rose, Bean, and Cordy (named after Shakespeare’s Rosalind, Bianca, and Cordelia, respectively) are not close. Bean left for New York City and Cordy has spent the last seven years freeing her spirit on the road. Only Rose has remained in the small Ohio college town where they grew up.

But the universe has forced the three sisters home. Bean is in trouble and Cordy is pregnant. Their mother is diagnosed with breast cancer while Rose must choose between staying home with her family and finally leaving home with her fiance.

My Thoughts:

The Weird Sisters came highly recommended and deservedly so. It is extremely well-written. You can see the care Brown put into each and every sentence. Dispersed between these sentences are well-timed Shakespeare quotes – the result of their father’s lifelong obsession with The Bard.

The thing that sets The Weird Sisters apart from other books is the first person plural narrative. The narrator is the three sisters combined. It is a “we” and not three “I”s. The effect enhances the story. Despite the sisters insistence that they are very dissimilar, there is still one story between the three of them. They are still bonded by something stronger than their differences. I can’t think of any other book that uses this type of plural narrative and I can’t think of many authors who could pull it off this well.

I laughed and cried and worried and hoped along with this book. The Weird Sisters is the story of family, sisterhood, and growing up. It will make you long for home and realize you are not the only one struggling with this whole being an adult thing. And sometimes, that’s really all you need in a book.

If I haven’t sold you yet, I will leave you with one final quote which every reader (and grammar-lover) will appreciate:

“Because despite his money and his looks and all the good-on-paper attributes he possessed, he was not a reader, and well, let’s just say that is the sort of nonsense up with which we will not put.” p. 71

Other Reviews: She Is Too Fond of Books; Caribou’s Mom; Devourer of Books; KellyVision; and tons more glowing reviews but I must cut them off somewhere.

Buy It Now: Amazon; Powell’s; IndieBound; Book Depository