I had three books going this week and finished them one right after the other, which has caused something of a bookjam in my blog writing. I'll stick with Natalie Standiford and start with CONFESSIONS OF THE SULLIVAN SISTERS, which was my read-at-home-in-the-evening book. (There was also a lunch book and a before-bed book.) This book didn't move me as much as HOW TO SAY GOODBYE IN ROBOT, but it was fun.
Someone has done Something to seriously disturb the almighty Sullivan matriarch (who is actually called Almighty by her family), and she is threatening to disinherit the whole family unless that person confesses. Because no one knows which crime has brought on this threat, sisters Norrie, Jane and Sassy each submit a written confession to Almighty.
The book begins with Norrie's confession, then goes to Jane's and then to Sassy's. In other books with multiple narrators, I've often become so involved with one narrator that I've wished they could finish telling their side before moving to the next person. Sometimes the narrator switch is jarring, and it takes me a second to adjust to the other person's story. But I got my wish in this book and discovered that there are advantages to the other way after all. After starting Jane's story, I missed Norrie, and I didn't get to find out what happened to her until the very end. Aside from that, though, the format works for this book, because each sister can tell her story uninterrupted. Although the girls are talking about the same stretch of time, I didn't feel that there was any repetition, because each sister has such a different perspective.
The Sullivans are an old, rich, Baltimore clan, and they live in a big house with a tower room that has passed from St. John, the oldest brother, to Sully, the next brother, and now to Norrie. The kids call their mother Ginger and their father Daddy-O. The name Daddy-O makes me giggle. Ginger and the girls go to tea at Almighty's every Tuesday.
Conversation topics at recent teas have been Norrie's upcoming Cotillion and Jane's bad behavior in their all-girl Catholic high school. Norrie has been fast losing interest in Cotillion (and in her escort, the eligible grandson of Almighty's bosom friend) because of a happy grad student she's met in a night speed reading class. Jane starts a blog to reveal all the dastardly deeds of her evil family. And Sassy is pondering her newly developed invincibility that has let her walk away with only bruises after being hit by a car. Twice.
The characters in this book, not just the sisters, are delightful. Almighty's current husband (#5) is a quiet, comforting presence throughout the book, even under sad circumstances. Cassandra, a 5th-grader Sassy is tutoring in math despite her admitted ignorance in the subject, is refreshing and matter-of-fact, and although she doesn't believe Sassy's invincibility theory at first, she is willing to hear Sassy out and add her own opinions.
I also liked Robbie, Norrie's new boyfriend, but he was my one big problem with this book. Party pooperish of me this may be, but I think that 25 is way too old to be dating 17. (Unless you're Colonel Brandon, in which case you can be 35 to Marianne's 17, but that was a very different time.) I realize that age is a somewhat arbitrary standard on which to base behavior, but a line must be drawn somewhere, and in this case, I will side with the law and wish they had waited until Norrie was 18.
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