March 21, 2011
Stimson (Who Loves You Best) fumbles her way through her raunchy, lackluster latest. Grace has the perfect life in the Oxfordshire countryside until her doctor tells her she won't be able to get pregnant, and her husband Tom's minor heart defect prevents them from adopting. Her sister, Susannah, meanwhile, has cobbled together an existence in America that consists of drugs and casual sex, and has just received notice that she will be deported back to England. In one of several convenient medical catastrophes, their mother suffers a stroke and goes into a coma, prompting Grace to bring Susannah home to England immediately. Their mother, in spirit form, pops up intermittently to comment on the sisters' dramas, but this is both inconsistent and irrelevant. Susannah offers to act as surrogate for Grace and Tom, but during her pregnancy, she continues to drink, smoke, and sleep around, and Tom and Grace's marriage suffers. Susannah considers a more staid life, leading to a legal battle over custody of the baby, but another set of medical crises helps resolve any issues, albeit unsatisfactorily. What is not off-putting in this novel (crude sex, under-realized characters) is irritating (neglected plot points, irreconcilable characterization, and lazy resolutions) leading to a wholly unsatisfying novel.
June 1, 2011
Grace is already reeling from the revelation that she cannot have children when a sudden stroke puts her mother into a coma, and her freewheeling younger sister, Susannah, reenters her life. Homeless and about to be deported from the U.S. for working illegally, Susannah offers to be a surrogate mother for Grace. That scheme, which Grace accepts all too readily, sets fire to years of unspoken resentment between the sisters, and the explosion soon engulfs everyone in their lives, from Grace's husband to the sisters' mother, who has been watching them as her body lies in a hospital bed. Stimson weaves a suspenseful tale of unusual emotional complexity and honesty, showing profound sympathy for her flawed yet likable characters while brutally taking them to task for their selfish and manipulative behavior. The novel's bittersweet ending and its suggestion that all that ends well will not necessarily remain well further complements this intense and heartfelt tale of love and hatred between siblings.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)