2013 book 130

Curtis Sittenfeld's Sisterland
Sittenfeld's latest (after Prep and American Wife and one other one I've never read) involves a pair of psychic twins living in St Louis, and what happens when one of them predicts a major earthquake. I wonder if the temptation to write about twins, especially ones with weird powers, is hard to resist for writers. It seems like there are a lot of books about twins, and not just the ones from Sweet Valley. At any rate, Sittenfeld handles the psychic twin thing pretty well--one longs to be conventional and leads a cookie-cutter life, married with a couple of kids, judging the other one, who embraces the New Agey lifestyle and has recently come out as a lesbian. Frankly, the protagonist (named Daisy, but now going by Kate, b/c god forbid even her name be interesting, and also she is trying to disassociate from her childhood psychic self), is not really that likable, even as I sympathized with her struggles and fears. Then towards the end of the book she does something so ridiculous that I was just like GET YOUR S--- TOGETHER ALREADY and was monumentally annoyed. Did Sittenfeld feel like telling this kind of internalized story about sisters and senses wasn't enough, so she had to throw in this plot twist? It just felt kind of needless to me. But it should provoke a LOT of discussions at book groups. Anyway, this is well written, and I liked most of it, but don't know why Sittenfeld abruptly turned it into a domestic drama at the end. B.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on June 25th.