SISTERS Stellar NYT BR Review
Richard Russo (Empire Falls, That Old Cape Magic), throws strong support behind The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay, by Beverly Jensen in Sunday’s NYTBR. Although it is technically a collection of stories, Russo says,
…thanks to its chronological sweep (from 1916 to 1987), its multiple settings (from New Brunswick — so vividly rendered that it becomes another character — to Boston to coastal Maine) and a good half-dozen of the richest fictional characters I’ve encountered anywhere, the book delivers the emotional rush of a novel, indeed of a great novel.
The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay was published to acclaim from many writers, from Stephen King to Joyce Carol Oates and Elizabeth Strout. Most of the prepub reviews, with the exception of PW, were strong (Kirkus starred it). Despite all that, the book, which came out the end of June, has had little consumer press attention, other than being selected as one of Six Books to Watch For in August in O, The Oprah Magazine.
The author, Beverly Jensen, died before any of her stories were published. She had resisted publishing them while she was alive because she wanted to spend her time writing. But after she died, her husband wrote in the Huffington Post, “It seemed too terrible that they would end up merely as family heirlooms, that her sisters and I would be telling some great-niece how talented her great-aunt Beverly had been and bringing out an old photocopy.”
 |
|
Blackstone Audio; UNABR; Read by Bernadette Dunne
10 CD; 9781441747884;$50.00
1 MP3CD; 9781441747914; $14.98
1 Playaway; 9781441747945; $41.99
9 Tape; 9781441747877 ; $32.98