Book Review: Sisterland

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Sisterland

Curtis Sittenfeld

 

From Goodreads:

Curtis Sittenfeld, New York Times bestselling author of American Wifeand Prep, returns with a mesmerizing novel of family and identity, loyalty and deception, and the delicate line between truth and belief.

From an early age, Kate and her identical twin sister, Violet, knew that they were unlike everyone else. Kate and Vi were born with peculiar “senses”—innate psychic abilities concerning future events and other people’s secrets. Though Vi embraced her visions, Kate did her best to hide them.

Now, years later, their different paths have led them both back to their hometown of St. Louis. Vi has pursued an eccentric career as a psychic medium, while Kate, a devoted wife and mother, has settled down in the suburbs to raise her two young children. But when a minor earthquake hits in the middle of the night, the normal life Kate has always wished for begins to shift. After Vi goes on television to share a premonition that another, more devastating earthquake will soon hit the St. Louis area, Kate is mortified. Equally troubling, however, is her fear that Vi may be right. As the date of the predicted earthquake quickly approaches, Kate is forced to reconcile her fraught relationship with her sister and to face truths about herself she’s long tried to deny.

Funny, haunting, and thought-provoking, Sisterland is a beautifully written novel of the obligation we have toward others, and the responsibility we take for ourselves. With her deep empathy, keen wisdom, and unerring talent for finding the extraordinary moments in our everyday lives, Curtis Sittenfeld is one of the most exceptional voices in literary fiction today

My Thoughts:
Meh. This was my current book read for book club, and while I enjoyed most of the beginning, by the end, I found myself slogging through the last 75 pages. One would think, by the title, that this book's main focus and overall arch would be soley about the sisters: about some journey or understanding that two sisters come to discover together and I really thought that was where the book was heading, but by the end it really was about just one of the sisters. The whole book kept building building building for an event that never actually happened...and when it didn't happen, the book took an entirely different turn, started a completely different storyline, and followed the one sister's journey a difficult time in her marriage. I don't know, it didn't resonate or leave anything with me, but I might have more insightful things to say after my book club meeting on it next week!