Shouldn’t we all be enjoying these last, lazy hazy days of summer before school starts next week by kicking off our shoes, relaxing and doing nothing much of anything? Not our Jen. She stayed up all night reading this week’s book pick – that’s how compelling she found “The Story Sisters” by Alice Hoffman.
Alice Hoffman is one of my most-beloved authors. She is consistently good. Often, great. “The Story Sisters” is a case in point. I stayed up all night reading it. Even exhausted, I couldn’t stop.
Three sisters are growing up on Long Island. They live with their divorced Mother and each face horrible challenges. In the face of traumas they grow closer and farther apart. Each has a proverbial cross to bear and we are enraptured and horrified.
The eldest, Elv, keeps a terrible terrible secret that almost destroys her. The youngest, Claire, shares it with her and it links them in very destructive ways. The middle sister, Meg, tries to extricate herself from a situation she doesn’t understand. The mother, Annie, is sadly excluded from a situation she could support. The girls turn inward when they should seek help and it almost kills them.
Each sister is remarkable and heartbreaking without losing our admiration. How could we turn away from such gravitas? Such extraordinary circumstance can be a seed for growth or destruction.
Alice Hoffman takes us into an almost magical world that the sisters create to survive.
As they grow and things fall apart, there are several characters who can save them and we hope and pray they can. We stretch our hearts to seek the light they crave. In New York and in Paris there are opportunities for redemption that they must recognize or die trying.
Like all of her books, the world is just withen our reach and we enter without a second thought. “The Story Sisters” could be a disturbing book of pain and loss, but Alice Hoffman ‘s gift is hope. There is an undercurrent of strength and love that we expect to prevail. Like, “Neverwhere” ( Neil Gaiman), “The Story Sisters” tells a story of great heartache resulting in great release.
Books offer us the gift of living vicariously through others and learning their lessons. “The Story Sisters” is a momentous immolation.