The Sisters by Nancy Jensen
This is the story of how multiple generations can be affected by one incident in the lives of their ancestors. As two sisters are torn apart at the beginning of the novel you see how a point at time trickles through time to affect future relationships between mothers and daughters and sisters. At the heart it is the story of multiple pairs of sisters and how they relate, annoy and care for each other.
Told chronologically yet by multiple narrators each chapter is almost a short story on its own. It helps to get the different perspectives to understand the motivations of each character’s actions and how they affect the other characters. It was interesting to see a daughter become a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and how she changes as she takes on different roles.
I would consider this a well-written debut novel. Even thought there are multiple perspectives being presented the helpful family tree in the beginning of the book isn’t really needed. Each woman has her own unique voice. The takeaway from this book is communication. I found myself wanting to shake many of the women and yell at them to talk, open up, say something, but in each of the circumstances as frustrating as the non-communication was, it was understandable.
