Lifelines
I'm Kim Alexander and this is Fiction Nation. The book is Names My Sisters Call Me by Megan Crane.
When a young woman gets engaged to a man she adores it should be wonderful time, free from stress and full of happiness. But that would not be a very interesting book. When youngest sister Courtney gets engaged, she decides it's the perfect opportunity to reunite her family — her Type-A oldest sister Nora has been at war with middle sister and demon-of-all-works Raine since Raine ruined Nora's wedding several years earlier. Oh, you're saying, short of setting the bride on fire, really, she didn't ruin the wedding. No, she did. Raine, a self-styled artist has been in San Francisco since 'the incident' and no one talks to anyone. But Courtney misses her sister and feels like its time to stand on her hind legs and broker a reunion. Toss into the mix Courtney's ex-boyfriend, another true life manifestation of evil, and poor Courtney has her hands full. When I say demon I'm speaking metaphorically in this case, but what are these people who seem to serve no other purpose than torment you, distract you, and basically bring you down? Even though I don't have any sisters, the passive aggressive antics of Raine — so devoted to her own imaginary artiness — made me a little nuts. Megan Crane intended for Nora and Raine to be pretty well equally difficult, but I would happily spend a month in an unheated fishing cabin with 20 Noras rather than sit next to Raine on the bus. Strike a nerve much? Well, it was pretty easy for me to figure out why I practically broke out in hives — I lived in Key West for 10 years among the hippies, freaks and weirdoes, and each one without fail fancied themselves an undiscovered genius — misunderstood, unappreciated, sometimes faced with the indignity of being forced to work for living — mon dieu! (I should hasten to mention that the King of the Artists Who Spend All Day Laying on the Couch Rather Than Make, You Know, Art was my ex-husband. Oh yeah, it all makes sense now!)
Speaking of struck nerves, the ex-boyfriend — so hot, so emotionally unavailable until just the wrong moment — him, I just wanted to slap. Yeah, we've all got one of those guys floating around. So Megan Crane's funny, clever, witty novel about one woman's voyage of self discovery and healing turned out for me to be a trip through the emotional wringer. Wasn't expecting that!
Hear my interview with Megan Crane on Fiction Nation, on Take Five, XM 155 on Friday May 9th at 11:30pm, on Saturday May 10th at 6pm and Sunday May 11th at 10:00am and 8:00pm, and on Monday May 12th at 12:00 midnight and 3:00am. You can also hear Fiction Nation on Sonic Theater, XM 163 on Thursday May 15th at 3:00 pm. All times EDT.
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