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Overview
Never were there such devoted sisters . . . or so the song would have it. Though some may be inseparable, for others the relationship arouses intense, tangled emotions. Novelist Shena Mackay has collected here a rich array of stories from well-known writers and lesser-known writers who deserve a wider audience. Reflecting her personal favorites, the stories reveal the depth and power of women's writing and women's lives. Louisa May Alcott, Edna O'Brien, Mary Flanagan, Janet Frame, Elizabeth Gaskell, Elizabeth Jolley, and Katherine Mansfield are among the prestigious writers who unravel this intricate bond in this compelling anthology. There are sisters who are friends in Such Devoted Sisters and sisters who are not. Marjorie Barnard writes about a woman who chooses her sister above her husband, while the coldly virtuous sister in Sylvia Townsend Warner's brave, bleak story shows little compassion. Fiona Cooper writes humorously about women who have created their own sisterhood at a gay bar in Newcastle. Then there are the teenage girls in Nan Morgenstern's "Sorority," who long for a sister of their own, while in Mary Flanagan's brilliantly chilling exposition of victimization, a game gets out of hand and threatens a tragic ending. Janet Frame, who tells in her marvelous autobiographies how she suffered the unimaginable loss of two sisters in successive drowning accidents, brings an unbearable desolation to "Keel and Kool," recounting a seemingly arbitrary, childish quarrel. Rivalry, companionship, love and dislike feature in a collection that exposes the innermost secrets of family life. As delightful, surprising - and sometimes disturbing - as the ties they explore, these stories are essential reading.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
This fine collection of 21 short stories offers a rich spectrum of sisterly behavior that spans the century and, almost incidentally, traces the evolution of the feminist movement. Here, selected by novelist Mackay (Dunedin), are tales of meek and indecisive spinsters who run a boarding house (``Habit,'' by Marjorie Barnard); of two fragile middle-aged sisters who, in Katherine Mansfield's ``The Daughters of the Late Colonel,'' espouse the firm credo ``It's much nicer to be weak than to be strong''; and, in strong contrast, of leather-clad women at a lesbian bar, revealed in Fiona Cooper's rollicking ``The Sisters Hood.'' Themes of betrayal and abuse by men, of jealousy and revenge, of sexual awakening-all are touched upon again and again with strength and humor. Perhaps the most powerful of the stories are those by the Indian writers Anjana Appachana and Wajida Tabassum. Appachana's disturbing tale of a degraded bride (``Incantations'') has a tragic conclusion with a curiously familiar twist, while Tabassum's gem (``Hand-me-downs'') features a unique revenge. Classics from Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Gaskell and Christina Rossetti are side by side with the modern tales, resulting in a well-rounded and satisfying array of sisterhoods past and present. (Sept.)Book Details
Published
March 1, 1994
Publisher
Moyer Bell Ltd.
Pages
330
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9781559211109