The Story Sisters: A Novel
by Alice Hoffman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Alice HoffmanEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-06-02
ISBN: 0307393860
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Crown
Book Reviews of The Story Sisters: A Novel
Book Review: "Love reminded them of everything they'd lost"
Summary: 4 Stars
What is a tale of the love between three sisters, rapidly turns into a searing portrayal of one sister who lives on the edge as she descends into a world of drug abuse and crime. At the center of The Story Sisters is the relationship between Elv, Meg and Claire Story who share a power circle of intrigue and imagination, their young lives constantly swamped by the faery realm where women have wings and it is possible to read the thoughts of another world that of Arnelle and its secret language. Although their mother Annie loves her daughters equally, and for the most part the sisters have loving magical childhood, it seems as though the dark-haired Elv has the strength, credibility and a healthy dose of glamour to get whatever she wants.
Against the suburban background of North Point Harbor, the girls' respective fates are cemented when Elv rescues Claire from the evil seductions of a child molester, the three sisters understanding the bond that know one could break. Yet it is Elv who pays the ultimate price, the event shaping much of her life that follows. On the night of an anniversary party for their grandparents, the seeds of Elv's malcontent is also sown. There's an accident in Central Park and for the first time the injured Claire is faced with Elv's reckless ways along with death, broken bones, and a trail of blood, while Elv's mind gradually fills with demons that she doesn't want her sisters to hear.
A novel of inner monsters and women with black wings, Hoffman spins the world of the Story sisters in a gray thread. The novel is portrait of three very different girls: while Elv is the "girl who refused to be broken, who refused to feel pain," Meg reads novels, and Claire loves ice-cream and art, all three in love with the romance that is Paris. It is only Elv who holds the lion's share of attention, over time, becoming a powerful, indifferent and elusive girl who beings to explore the human world with her shorn black dresses and black boots, her kohl lined eyes, her nails painted black along with the two black stars tattooed above each shoulder.
With Elv's life descending into drugs and crime, laced with self-loathing and rebelliousness, the landscape of the sisters shift when she enters the Westfield rehab center and then meets Lorry, a junkie and petty criminal. Elv is mesmerized by this bad boy, turned inside out with love. Being close to him was like being in another world, this man who had bad habits but tells her that he can control his excesses. It seems as though Elv is unable to break free of her new lover's hold. With complicated and vulnerable characters at the novel's center, Hoffman refuses to shy away from her central themes - the price of love and family loyalty, and how one family must ultimately cope with the ramifications of a good girl suddenly gone bad. Powerful images abound: a robin necklace, a tattoo of roses, the language of made up words that sound like birdsong. In the end, this novel is a graceful and also harrowing personal journey, an intimate snapshot of a young girl lost and on the brink of hell, her innocence ultimately fragmented and torn apart by the demons of her mind. Mike Leonard June 09.
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