Sisterland

Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld (2013)

I love Curtis Sittenfeld, but when this book came out I was skeptical because it's about twin sisters with psychic powers. I don't believe in that and didn't think I could stomach a book in which I had to suspend that disbelief. But recently I came across it again, and I reminded myself that not long ago I read a book about a woman who flies through space in a giant shrimp and I thought surely I can manage a book with a little ESP. It turns out I needn't have worried about the psychic aspects, but there were plenty of things about this book I didn't like.

The premise is this: Daisy (who as an adult is called Kate) and her twin sister Violet have always had psychic abilities. In middle school Daisy was more open about it, but there were consequences to letting everyone know you could predict the future. As they grew up, Kate avoided using her senses and didn't tell people about them while Vi embraced hers and even started a career as a psychic medium. In 2009, Vi publicly predicted a serious earthquake and went on the news, creating a media firestorm. This caused a little friction for Kate because her husband and his colleague, Courtney were geologists. Courtney and Hank were also neighbors and the two couples were good friends since they both had little kids. They all thought that Vi was crazy.

So basically nothing happens for oh, another 200 pages, except for revisiting Kate and Vi's childhoods and Kate's really boring relationships pre-Jeremy. Why were we subjected to all of this? I have no idea. Also, we get a LOT of minutiae about Kate's day-to-day life as a stay-at-home mom to two little kids, which I absolutely could have done without. Then in the last hundred pages or so a bunch of stuff happens that I will spoil for you now: Kate has sex with Courtney's husband, the stay-at-home-dad she spends a lot of time with. This happens totally out of the blue without any thought for her husband, the fact that their marriage is actually pretty damn good, or birth control. She becomes pregnant, but also had sex with Jeremy around that time so she needs to figure out who is the father. This is important because Hank is black and if she has a black baby it will be pretty obvious that it's not Jeremy's. She didn't even consider an abortion (she is allegedly pro-choice, but was super judgey about Courtney having an abortion, so now SHE can't.) Anyhow, it's Hank's baby but she doesn't tell him; it is all handled stupidly and ridiculously and this WILL come back to haunt them someday, mark my words. Or it would if the book didn't end with them just suddenly moving to another part of the country.

Honest to god, Jeremy is too good for this woman. She was so uninteresting and wishy-washy about everything and really into judging other people when she is actually the terrible one. Maybe her sister Violet dropped out of college and wasn't great with money or whatever, but at least she's pretty honest and doesn't treat people so horribly. And I don't think the author actually intends for Kate to be seen as a bad person, but I can't find many redeeming qualities about her, and she doesn't learn or grow at all during the book. [Edited to add: She is also homophobic; and at one point says that Courtney is "more like a man" because she doesn't express her feelings. Gross.] Hearing so much about the day-to-day aspects of having two little kids, I couldn't imagine why she was happy to have a third kids. If anything ever made me feel good about my choices to not have kids, it's this book.

I mean, it wasn't horrible. I wouldn't have made it through if it was. Sittenfeld is a great writer and she created a whole cast of characters who felt real and it was fairly immersive for a while. But about halfway through I started questioning whether anything was ever going to happen and why the book was so damn long, and that went on for a while before all the stuff at the end started happening. So I guess pacing was a big problem. That and a main character I couldn't stand.

Anyhow, lots of people loved this book and maybe you would too. But it's by far my least favorite book by Curtis Sittenfeld.

Eligible

Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld (2016)

Curtis Sittenfeld's newest novel is a modern-day retelling of Pride and Prejudice. When Mr. Bennet suffers a health scare, Liz and Jane rush home to Cincinnati where their three younger sisters still live at home. Jane, almost forty, is a yoga instructor and Liz writes for a magazine. Mary is a perpetual student and a recluse, while the youngest sisters, Kitty and Lydia, are obsessed with CrossFit and their paleo diets. Liz learns soon after arriving that the family's financial troubles have come to a head with Mr. Bennet's hospitalization because they don't have health insurance, and the house is falling into disrepair, and she quickly takes it upon herself to find a solution. Meanwhile, mutual friends introduce the family to Chip Bingley, a new doctor at the hospital where Mr. Bennet just stayed, who is well-known for a stint on a reality show called Eligible. He is instantly smitten with Jane, and through him Liz meets the impossible Mr. Darcy. And they're off!

I cannot even express what a perfect job Sittenfeld has done in modernizing this novel. She has kept the essence of all the characters and plot points exactly the same, but outfitted them in the trappings of current times. Lydia and Kitty are ridiculous, frivolous people, so it makes perfect sense that they don't have jobs and spend all their time working out and painting their nails. Mrs. Bennet is hysterical and anxious and kind of a bigot. ("Jews are very fond of dried fruit," she inexplicably says at one point. Yet that's exactly the sort of thing Austen's Mrs. Bennet would say.) Updating the romance aspect of the story, they're all sleeping with each other - well, Jane with Chip and Liz with Darcy - because distant flirting won't do in 2013. To achieve the emotional stakes needed, sex is required. And the elopement! I won't spoil it by saying why it's scandalous, but again she picked the perfect situation to cause Mrs. Bennet the kind of consternation required for her necessary histrionics.

At the same time, some parts were able to be kept very much the same, down to the dialogue. What does it say about our society that the main premise of the story still holds up? Sure, Jane and Liz are pushing forty, but the fact that their mother is obsessed with marrying them off is, sadly, still believable. As is the fact that three of their daughters are still living at home even though they're adults. Just as people are getting married later these days, so are they living with their parents well beyond what used to be considered the norm. Thirty is the new twenty! And of course the neuroses, self-doubt, and poor communication that has been thwarting relationships for millennia still holds strong.

Although Eligible is entirely based on another book, one of the brilliant things about it is that it holds up on its own. Sittenfeld has updated the story so well, and makes it work so perfectly on its own, that nobody unfamiliar with the source material is going to scratch their heads and wonder about why something happened the way it did. Nothing happens here just because it had to in order to fit the original novel. So if you haven't read or watched Pride and Prejudice, you can still very much enjoy this book as the hilarious chick lit that it is. Understanding the original story, though, adds a dimension that for me was priceless.

Eligible is quite different from Curtis Sittenfeld's other books, which just goes to show how versatile she is as a writer. I loved both Prep and American Wife, both of which are a bit more serious than this. I'm sure some will bristle at my calling Eligible chick lit, but that's what it is - a light-hearted, funny book about modern womanhood - and there's nothing wrong with that.

Eligible is part of the Austen Project, a series of updated versions of Jane Austen's novels. From what I've heard it's the best one so far. The others are Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope, Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid, and Emma by Alexander McCall Smith. Have you read any of them? Will you read Eligible?

American Wife: a review

Curtis Sittenfeld's new novel is a fictionalized story of Laura Bush's life, but don't let that deter you. As she says in this interview, although it is loosely based on Bush's life, about 85% of it is totally made up.

An epic novel, it spans Alice Blackwell's life from high school until middle age. Alice is a very likeable and complicated character, and the book explores some themes I've thought about a lot, such as how the private lives and opinions of political figures contrast with what they show the public, and the responsibilities of presidential spouses. Charlie Blackwell, her husband, I found much less appealing, and I'm sorry to say he reminded me a great deal of George W. Bush. I didn't understand Alice's attraction to him, but it didn't lessen my enjoyment of the book, and in fact their complicated marriage provided great food for thought about the way marriages work (or don't work). For the most part I didn't think about the Bush family as I read this, but just enjoyed it as a novel. So if you're concerned about reading a big long book about someone you don't necessarily like, please don't let that keep you from reading this. Sittenfeld is a great author and American Wife is well worth your time to read.