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What was this book about 4 sisters?

18 replies

FrostyBamboo · 20/02/2020 19:31

After mistressploppy's thread, and bookmum08's help, I need a book hunt too! I read it in my college library, forgot to take it out, and never found it again. This was early 2000s.

It's about four sisters and their parents. One wears thick glasses, one gets pregnant at 15 and one knits compulsively. I think it's set in the 50s or 60s.

The only quotes/bits of content I can remember are ones that stood out as quite shocking to me:

The older sister does a 'clumsy striptease' for her bf, apparently blinking lots because she's taken her glasses off.

The 15yo follows a guy home ("her sandals slapped on the pavement") and he forces himself on her. The narrator talks about seeing a hammer on the windowsill while it's happening. When she gives birth, it says "she was never very good at screaming" so she whimpers.

There might also be a grandmother in the house, and the father doesn't seem to be able to cope with being surrounded by women.

Any ideas??

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bookmum08 · 20/02/2020 19:36

Blimey that's some plot. I don't know this one I am afraid.
Sounds like it could be one of the 'saga' genre - authors like Annie Murray, Maureen Lee type stuff!

FrostyBamboo · 20/02/2020 19:39

I'm not they were even the main plots, just side stories!

... the name Maureen rings a bell, though. I wonder if one of the girls was called Maureen? Or Mabel?

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EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 20/02/2020 19:39

Is it UK set because it makes me think of Fall On Your Knees which is set in Nova Scotia. That has 4 sisters and there are issues of abuse...

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Vellichor · 20/02/2020 19:39

Website abebooks have a forum where you can ask booksellers for help if you don’t remember a book name. Forum.abebooks.com

FrostyBamboo · 20/02/2020 19:42

As an aside; not Maureen Lee. Definitely set in America. Family may be Jewish (do I have a fleeting memory of wigs mentioned?).

The front cover was modern art style with the faces of all sisters and the mother.

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EnlightenedOwl · 20/02/2020 19:45

Faraday girls by Monica McInerney ? Years since I read it but thought of it from your description

Ridingthegravytrain · 20/02/2020 19:48

Something by Anne Tyler? She writes some suitably depressing stuff. Though the plot doesn’t ring a bell

coconuttelegraph · 20/02/2020 19:50

I have no idea of the title but it does not sound like a book I'd want to read Grin

FrostyBamboo · 20/02/2020 19:50

Thanks, Vellichor - I've posted on there too, now.

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FrostyBamboo · 20/02/2020 19:57

EnlightenedOwl I don't think it's Those Faraday Girls... I see links, though!

I agree, it seemed depressing at the time but the missing memory of the title has bugged me for twenty years! Grin

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SpeedofaSloth · 20/02/2020 19:59

It sounds very Anne Tyler to me, too.

catchyjem · 20/02/2020 20:08

Sounds like a Virginia Andrews type story

FrostyBamboo · 20/02/2020 20:31

Def not Virginia Andrews. I remember the style sounding like modern chicklit.

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FrostyBamboo · 20/02/2020 20:35

Not Anne Tyler as far as I can see...

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FrostyBamboo · 20/02/2020 20:36

I think parts of it were meant to be humorous, although my description doesn't express that!

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FrostyBamboo · 20/02/2020 21:03

I FOUND IT! I wonder how much I've misremembered... I don't recall the blonde girl at all!

What was this book about 4 sisters?
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bookmum08 · 20/02/2020 21:43

Well done for figuring it out! I have to say it's one I have never heard of! Hope you enjoy re reading it.

EnlightenedOwl · 20/02/2020 22:48

I've never heard of this one either. Glad you found it Smile

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