Sister Crazy
‘Both comic and deeply serious. A truly dazzling debut.’ BERYL BAINBRIDGE
Jemima Weiss grew up with a special feeling for Action Man, American westerns, the Knights of the Round Table, bagels with cheddar on the top and, above all else, her family: her rumpled father, glamorous mother and four remarkable siblings. Now grown into a worldly yet deeply troubled woman, Jem reflects on her days as a young girl, even as she struggles not to be engulfed by the present.
An edgy and deeply funny account about growing up in a close-knit family, and the difficulties of breaking away, in fact, of making oneself break away from the security of the family bonds.
An extraordinarily brilliant piece of writing. Emma Richler has chosen to tell a classic tale, one which writers often cut their teeth on, but the voice and the style she brings to this novel is simply astonishing. The combination of ingenious comedy and absolutely devastating bombshells of detail makes this book a rare thing indeed.
”'The tone is confiding, the form original and I was charmed and impressed.” - Observer
”'A charmer with a dangerous undertow” - Time Out
'There is an enticingly breathless quality to Richler's prose, and in a childlike dash, she guides us through her elegy for lost youth. Her incisive observations on the intricacies of family dynamics are by turns whimsical, intense and darkly funny.' TLS -
'Stunning…Richler has written a deeply moving book. Her language is electric, her formal poise astonishing in a first novel; her observations of the world of children, of the terror of madness, riveting. And she is bold and witty and will make you laugh out loud.' Lisa Appignanesi -
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