Such Devoted Sisters

Short stories by Louisa May Alcott, Katherine Mansfield, Janet Frame, Jean Stafford, Elizabeth Gaskell, Edna O'Brien, and other writers explore the joys and sorrows, triumphs and tragedies, power and weaknesses, of sisterhood.

Mackay (Dunedin, 1993, etc.) has compiled an anthology of short fiction and poetry around the theme of sisterhood with all its jealousies and pathologies, intimacies and vital bonds. Heavyweights represented include Edna O'Brien, Jean Stafford, Louisa May Alcott, and Elizabeth Jolley. In her introduction, Mackay takes note that ``what Hollywood in its heyday really liked was one sister to be bad and preferably played by Bette Davis.'' This collection depicts a much greater variety of sisterly relations in tones ranging from the comic to the tragic. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.