Shred Sisters
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4.2 • 92개의 평가
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- US$9.99
출판사 설명
LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE
No one will love you more or hurt you more than a sister.
“I love this book. It moves like a souped-up pickup truck." — Patti Smith, author of Just Kids and M Train
From Betsy Lerner, celebrated author of The Bridge Ladies, comes a wry and riveting debut novel about family, mental illness, and a hard-won path between two sisters
It is said that when one person in a family is unstable, the whole family is destabilized. Meet the Shreds. Olivia is the sister in the spotlight until her stunning confidence becomes erratic and unpredictable, a hurricane leaving people wrecked in her wake. Younger sister Amy, cautious and studious to the core, believes in facts, proof, and the empirical world. None of that explains what’s happening to Ollie, whose physical beauty and charisma mask the mental illness that will shatter Amy’s carefully constructed life.
As Amy comes of age and seeks to find her place—first in academics, then New York publishing, and through a series of troubled relationships—every step brings collisions with Ollie, who slips in and out of the Shred family without warning. Yet for all that threatens their sibling bond, Amy and Ollie cannot escape or deny the inextricable sister knot that binds them.
Spanning two decades, Shred Sisters is an intimate and bittersweet story exploring the fierce complexities of sisterhood, mental health, loss and love. If anything is true it’s what Amy learns on her road to self-acceptance: No one will love you more or hurt you more than a sister.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Literary agent Lerner (Food and Loathing, a memoir) traces the impact of mental illness on a pair of sisters in her moving debut novel. Amy, the narrator, describes herself as studious and highly motivated compared to her wild and beautiful older sister, Olivia, who frequently engages in risky or outright illegal behavior, from shoplifting to disappearing for days a time. As the sisters grow up, Ollie's misbehavior poses greater dangers, not only for herself, but also for their parents and for Amy's friendships, romantic relationships, and even her career. Ollie's condition isn't named until late in the novel; part of Lerner's skilled approach to narrative lies in subtly depicting the destigmatizing of mental illness and the evolution of treatment during the period from the sisters' childhood in the 1970s through the 1990s. Lerner's portrayal of Amy's five-year course of therapy is particularly rewarding, as Amy explores the limits and strengths of her bond with Olivia. The result is a quietly lovely and ultimately hopeful chronicle of a complicated family.
사용자 리뷰
Finally a book that reads like a book . . .
After having read far too many “literary” novels recently that seem to have been written in alien languages by writers from unknown universes, it was nice to read a novel I could relate to. I’m so tired of trying to read unreadable, experimental novels that make no sense to me. Remarkably honest regarding the surreality of living with and knowing someone with mental health problems, though not all of them wrap-up so tidally, this book was a pleasure. Thank you Betsy Lerner. I truly enjoyed your book.
Such an amazing portrait of mental illness
I read this in one sitting I couldn’t put it down it was such an authentic portrayal of what the entire family and loved ones experience with their loved one suffering from mental health crisis and how terribly difficult it is to get the right diagnosis and treatment that gives them a quality of life that is stable and safe. The roller coaster of emotions and chaos that comes along with the whole disease is one that everyone close is overwhelmingly debilitating and can consume their entire lives as well. A true and very real inside perspective from both the one who is suffering from mental health issues and those who love them and stand by them.
I wanted to love this
But I’ll settle for liking it. Portions read like a news article almost. Very cut and dry. I’d expected more flowery writing from a poet. I hoped for a sister heavy story, but we are given mere glimpses into the sister dynamic while following the “normal” sister through her life. Maybe I just don’t mesh with this author.