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There are currently 22 member reviews
for The Sisters
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Joyce K. (Conway, Arkansas)
The Sisters
This is a book that really made me think about how family dynamics shape our lives in so many ways. The story opens with two sisters who live rather desperate lives in a small town in Kentucky. The older one makes a radical choice to protect her younger sister. What results from that choice is a lifetime of separation. The younger sister develops deep rooted bitterness that just seems to perpetuate itself with the next generation. In addition to being a story of family, it is also a story of American women over the decades. The thought I kept having was how grateful I am to have lived my life in a time that women could make choices about education, professions, marriage,and birth control. There was a great deal of misery in this book, some caused by poor choices; at other times the lack of any choice. But the most compelling thing that keeps drawing the characters of this book together is the bonds of family and their love for one another. I think that is what we all hope we have with family. That is the reward the reader is able to experience from reading this book.
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Carolyn A. (Questa, NM)
The Sisters by Nancy Jensen
As I read this book superlatives kept coming to me. It is stunning, superb, astounding. The title could have easily been Secrets. So many family secrets. We see the story in chronological order by different women, all related to the sisters, as well as the sisters themselves. The story of the sisters is bittersweet. This is a book that I will recommend to our bookclub, as it is usually all women. In our small community, we are all sisters, and the story will resonate with all of us.
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Mary S. (Pinson, AL)
The Sisters
There is nothing I love more than reading an author’s first novel. This is a wonderful story about two sisters, one trying to protect the other from a horrible secret that leads to a misunderstanding and throws both their lives on totally different paths. As the story unfolds, you can see how circumstances and decisions affect not only the sister’s lives but the lives of future generations. I predict this novel will become a book club favorite and provide a very interesting discussion.
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Marti F. (Coralville, IA)
Excellent debut novel
"The Sisters" covers a span of years from 1927 to 2007 in the lives of two related families. We see the years unfold through the lives of the female offspring of the two sisters. Even though years pass between chapters (the family tree certainly helps keep track of names, ages, etc.), the main characters are well developed, with their rich voices and strong unique natures. Various kinds of relationships are explored, besides sister to sister, with good effect. This is a book I would read again to capture more of its subtle symbolism and nuances.
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Michele J. (Port Orchard, WA)
A Good Book Club Choice
The Sisters is a compelling story that spans several decades and follows the story of two sisters who, although separated, lead intertwining lives. While a few of the premises of the story seemed contrived, the exploration of family dysfunction and relationships is noteworthy and I suspect that this novel will prove quite popular with book clubs. This is the author's debut effort and I look forward to her future efforts as her style becomes more mature and refined.
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Beth K. (New York, NY)
A well written book that I couldn't really enjoy
It is hard for me to assign a numerical rating to this book because while I believe that it is very well written, with authentic characters and an interesting story, it was simply too bleak for me to enjoy it. The women in this story endure one tragedy after another, and are uniformly tortured souls. I can read and appreciate a sad book with the best of them, but this one had not one uplifting moment, with the exception of one section toward the end.
While reading this one, I couldn’t help but think of another novel that I read last year that I recommend often, The Quickening, by Michelle Hoover, which was also quite bleak in its tone and underlying story -- but I ended up really liking it because there were moments of pure joy expressed by some of the characters.
This was a fine book. It just wasn't for me.
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Robin M. (Corpus Christi, TX)
Quietly devastating,enormously moving
Nancy Jensen's debut novel is an emotionally weighty and melancholy portrait of two sisters forever separated by an event which ultimately reshapes their lives, characters and future. It is a well written, complex and compelling portrayal of family, unintended consequences and survival. I wanted to give this novel 5 stars, chapter by chapter, but I found it necessary to refer to the family tree quite often. Still highly recommend this book and look forward to more from this gifted author.
