The Bunner Sisters (original 1916; edition 2011)

Compelling. Unsatisfying ending. ( )

I really like Wharton. This is the third book of hers that I’ve experienced and each of them is laced with pathos and an understanding of humanity that few novelists, particularly of her generation, were able to describe. Even fewer of those were women too because of the way US society ran itself at the time. I find her refreshing in a let’s get back to reality kind of way. Life is hard sometimes and choices that we make have vast consequences on our lives. My generation realised that more than the present I think but still far less than the one before.

Bunner Sisters is a shop that is the setting, by and large, for the story of two ageing spinsters, one of whom gets snapped up by an ageing bachelor in a brisk and unexpected romance. The impact of the marriage on the two sisters forms the major part of the book.

The tension between the two sisters is thinly veiled by their domestic routines. When the romance begins, that all goes out the window, despite desperate attempts to keep it up. And the marriage brings about a shocking change in their fortunes, which, if you know Wharton well, you’ll be able to predict the result of.

The characters aren’t as strongly developed as in the other novels I’ve read and this is more of a novella than a full novel, not that any of hers are long. I think that’s a shame. I think there’s huge potential for more development of the sisters and the husband. I wish she’d put more into it.

Again, marriage and its consequences is the theme Wharton explores just as in Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence. Makes me wonder what it was about marriage in particular that was able to provide her with so much inspiration. Mind you, having been married 15 years, I’m not too surprised

This is a stark tragedy and , like any tragedy, provokes fear, sober thought and perhaps anger or sadness. The drawing of the sisters' characters makes them so blameless and their sufferings so extreme that I found myself desiring a bit more justice than this author provided - but tragedy wouldn't be tragedy if sufficient justice were provided! Finishing it, I felt to lift the vain prayer that lightning strike any man with substance abuse issues who gets within two yards of either of my daughters! ( )

A very surprising and emotional story. ( )