It barely took me an hour to read "Sisters", Lily Tuck's latest novel (novella? short story?). Written in brief paragraphs, smoothly flowing in an almost stream-of-consciousness style, it makes for an entertaining and deceptively easy read. In reality, in this book there is so much that is subtly suggested and cunningly implied, that it packs in its few pages the effect of a novel thrice its length.

The unnamed narrator's marriage is haunted by the presence of her new husband's first wife - ominously referred to throughout as she - whom he divorced to marry the narrator. After some initial awkwardness, the narrator manages to maintain a decent relationship with her husband's son and daughter and, to a lesser extent, also with she/her. But we soon learn that beneath the genteel veneer, there is a lurking obsession, an all-consuming jealousy.

The bare bones of the plot will inevitably draw comparisons with Du Maurier's [b:Rebecca|17899948|Rebecca|Daphne du Maurier|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386605169s/17899948.jpg|46663], as both the author and her erudite narrator are very much aware. Indeed, there are knowing references to Du Maurier's novel which are quickly turned on their head ("I dreamed - not that I went back to Manderley - that I was in a big city..."). Similarly, that novel's dark, Gothic atmosphere is here replaced by a different sort of darkness - the darkness of black humour and biting satire, as we witness the making and unmaking of a contemporary marriage. Brilliant, witty stuff; sparkling like the champagne which propels the book to its denouement.

An electronic version of this novel was provided through NetGalley in return for an honest review. ( )

Meh...it was ok. It does explain what it's like to be the second wife, to wonder what she was like and how she compares to you in all things. It can be a difficult thing for sure. I guess I would have preferred more of a story instead of someone's inner thought. ( )

It barely took me an hour to read "Sisters", Lily Tuck's latest novel (novella? short story?). Written in brief paragraphs, smoothly flowing in an almost stream-of-consciousness style, it makes for an entertaining and deceptively easy read. In reality, in this book there is so much that is subtly suggested and cunningly implied, that it packs in its few pages the effect of a novel thrice its length.

The unnamed narrator's marriage is haunted by the presence of her new husband's first wife - ominously referred to throughout as she - whom he divorced to marry the narrator. After some initial awkwardness, the narrator manages to maintain a decent relationship with her husband's son and daughter and, to a lesser extent, also with she/her. But we soon learn that beneath the genteel veneer, there is a lurking obsession, an all-consuming jealousy.

The bare bones of the plot will inevitably draw comparisons with Du Maurier's [b:Rebecca|17899948|Rebecca|Daphne du Maurier|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386605169s/17899948.jpg|46663], as both the author and her erudite narrator are very much aware. Indeed, there are knowing references to Du Maurier's novel which are quickly turned on their head ("I dreamed - not that I went back to Manderley - that I was in a big city..."). Similarly, that novel's dark, Gothic atmosphere is here replaced by a different sort of darkness - the darkness of black humour and biting satire, as we witness the making and unmaking of a contemporary marriage. Brilliant, witty stuff; sparkling like the champagne which propels the book to its denouement.

An electronic version of this novel was provided through NetGalley in return for an honest review. ( )

I can see the craft in this, but it's not to my liking. ( )

https://msarki.tumblr.com/post/158752768133/sisters-by-lily-tuck

The remarkable flow of this fascinating short novel is mesmerizing. A difficult proposition if forced to put it down, and rare in the book-reading business. A writer who knows words and what they do, who thinks about the many questions posed in life, and one who examines them with courage and relentless charm. Lily Tuck is a great choice to spend extended time with.

I first heard of Lily Tuck in a fiction-writing class [a:Gordon Lish|232097|Gordon Lish|http://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1267719924p2/232097.jpg] was conducting during the summer of 1995 in Bloomington, Indiana. Tuck was another of the many writers Lish had acquired in his stable as editor for seventeen years at Alfred Knopf. But in class he championed loudly the skills of Lily Tuck and brought her to the attention of perhaps hundreds of his students. And because there were so many writers the great Lish published in his tenure at Knopf, and for the most part commercial failures amounting to a high percentage, Tuck has gone basically unnoticed by the mainstream, even though she won the coveted 2004 National Book Award in fiction for her novel [b:The News from Paraguay|77691|The News from Paraguay|Lily Tuck|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1410132758s/77691.jpg|1325348]. Her first book, published by Lish, [b:Interviewing Matisse, or The Woman Who Died Standing Up|574202|Interviewing Matisse, or The Woman Who Died Standing Up|Lily Tuck|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1410136148s/574202.jpg|561204], remains on my shelf, still unread after two previous false starts. But after reading Sisters I am intent now on a sufficiently renewed attack on those pages as soon as possible. Tuck is sophisticated, and obviously born of that class, based on her range of knowledge of the cultural elite.

Few writers can make you feel you are with them in the room. Intimately. Lily Tuck employs with her voice several anecdotal references to expensive tastes. With the ear of a classic composer, she plays her song adroitly, and disregarding the consequences of infidelities, makes them all feel worth it. ( )