Sister (Mysteries & Horror)

Rating:
Summary: Lord, this was a painful book
Review: A.Manette Ansay's second novel is about loss: loss of family relationships, loss of faith, loss of life, loss of roots. It's yet another dysfunctional family story, one led by a bully of a man. The father taunts Sam, his son, calling him a sissy; he drives Abby, his daughter, to a nervous breakdown with his lectures about feminine virtues. His wife somehow manages to assert her independence and gets a job, further infuriating this man who seems always infuriated.
But while Abby is healed by moving into the home of her intensely Catholic grandmother, Sam falls into insolence, drugs, and punks, then disappears, an event that precipitates the collapse of this already tenuous family.
Beautiful language, tightly controlled narrative, and heartbreaking emotional material make this not a happy book, but one to be treasured.

Rating:
Summary: Sister
Review: I initially purchased this book because I am from the same community as the author (and, in fact, very distantly related to her through the marriages that often happen in small-town America.) However, I've never met her.

While I think she is a very sound writer, I found the actual story, the plot, quite dull and predictable. For me, the saving grace was actually recognizing some of the places she writes about, even though she doesn't literally name them. She also has a true knack for description and characterization, even if the plot left me a little cold. Perhaps this is simply not a style that personally appeals to me.

Rating:
Summary: Eloquent writing with a slow start
Review: I will admit to not getting into Sister as quickly as I did with Vinegar Hill or Midnight Champagne. But around the 5th chapter of so, something happened. The groove of the story began to make an impression on me, and suddenly I found myself savoring the pages that followed. And upon completion of this wonderful novel, A. Manette Ansay has finally and wholly proved herself to me to be an author of incomparable merit and style.

Sister tells the story of 30-year-old Abigail Schiller as she prepares for the birth of her first child. During the course of her pregnancy, Abby reflects upon her childhood and its many facets. Growing up in the Schiller household was not easy. Abby's mother, a rigid Catholic housewife, was always good to her, but tended to turn the other cheek when it came to her father, a strict disciplinarian with chauvinistic views of male and female roles. And then there was Sam, Abby's lovable younger brother whom she protected and adored. Finally, after years of constant torment that dug at him by the picking hands of his father, Sam runs away for good. And over ten years later, Abby realizes, as a mother-to-be, she needs to reconcile her feelings of loss and love for her brother in order for her to move forward in her own life.

Revolving between past and present, Sister's chapters delve into a seemingly normal childhood and its secret, dark undertones, then flash-forwards to a seemingly normal adult life where every movement has some direct correlation to a moment in the past. A beautiful and powerful novel with action told in whispers that quietly unfolds as the pages are turned. Not a novel of great activity and one that may be hard to get into at first, but certainly after novel's end, readers will be left with a feeling of awe and satisfaction. Tremendously readable. Ansay will remain on my bookshelf for life.

Rating:
Summary: Ansay's Best Yet
Review: I'm a big fan of A. Manette Ansay. I started with her books with Oprah and VINEGAR HILL and ordered this and MIDNIGHT CHAMPAGNE to see what else she could do. SISTER is my favorite, hands down.

SISTER tells an engrossing tale of Abby, now a woman and soon to be mother, whose brother mysteriously disappeared 10 years ago and has yet to resurface. Looking through memories of the past, and things that happened in her family, she re-examines what may possibly have happened to her brother, while at the same time, looking at the things that happened to her parents and to her as well.

There are parts that are unsettling and uncomfortable, the confrontations written as if they had been experienced and you feel almost like an intruder on a deeply personal family scene. The writing is clear and well done, and the book is really an excellent look at family, pain, grief, religion, gender roles, and self exploration. A very good read.

Rating:
Summary: An Insightful Journey
Review: Impending motherhood causes 30-year-old Abby to reflect on her own childhood--and on her role as Sister, in particular.

Sam and Abigail Schiller grew up in a home steeped in rigid tradition. Their mother and grandmother lean on the teachings of the Catholic Church. And their father reinforces unyielding opinions of masculinity and women's roles. The children retreat: Abby to a dark breakdown and years of living in the "third person;" Sam simply disappears.

As her pregnancy progresses, Abby forces herself to face the life in the past, hoping to find keys to better parenthood and to resolve the mystery of her brother's disappearance.

This isn't a book of deep revelation. It's more of an intellectual journey as Abby searches for truth in the past. She knows Sam was not simply a misguided teenager--he was troubled and capable of terrifying deeds. This sensitive study of family dynamics ends with a powerful statement on faith. More than anything, it is faith that Abby's mother wants her to give her child,"the ability to see beyond the place where you are."

Rating:
Summary: The search for understanding and truth.
Review: It seems to me that these two things are at the center of this book. Abigail Schiller finally reaches the point where she wants and needs to come to grips with the tragedy of her brother's disappearance so many years ago. Intense. Chilling. Convincing. Beatifully written. I found that I had to keep reading because I kept hoping that everything would be solved in the end. And things were mostly solved, though not necessarily happily.

Rating:
Summary: A Very Moving Story of Love and Loss
Review: Sister, is the story of Abby Schiller, married, pregnant and still haunted by her abusive childhood and the disappearance of her younger brother over ten years ago. Now, as she's about to become a mother, Abby feels the need to revisit her past and put it to rest before the birth of her baby. And so she begins a journey to try to understand her abusive father, her mother, who always looked the other way and her sensitive, artistic brother who left at seventeen, never to be seen or heard from again. And what a journey it is. Ms Ansay is a wonderful, eloquent writer and the strength of her prose literally pulls you into the story and never lets you go. Her scenes are vivid and riveting. Her characters, beautifully drawn. This is a compelling story of love and loss, betrayal and finally forgiveness, written with honesty and insight. A powerful book in its own quiet way.

Rating:
Summary: A real to life dysfunctional family
Review: This is a book that is so well written, in my opinion, that it pulls the reader right into the story. It's a story about a sister and a brother and their young dependence on each other for comfort. The father is hard to explain, but I'm glad I didn't have one like him. He teased and picked on the kids, especially the brother because he wanted him tough like a boy and not a sissy who liked to draw or enjoy music. The downward psychological spiral of the brother was evident. The mother's "escape" was her faith, religion, and her job. The sister's "escape" was her depression, music, and her grandmother. The brother fell into the clutches of his paranoid father. There is a lot more to this story and I recommend reading it. I enjoyed it. It's a story that can emotionally shake you.The story of a young, disturbed boy who turns up missing and the maturing of his sister into womanhood constantly wondering about her brother.

Rating:
Summary: Family Matters . . .
Review: Very well written account of a rural Wisconsin family's struggle to free itself from the control of an inept father and a blind faith in catholic doctrine. The novel is told through the recollection of the sole surviving child, Abigail. The most telling aspect of Abigail's life is revealed through the relationship of her father with the rest of the family. The more he attempts to control the will of family members the more they withdraw. The mother rebels by taking on a job in defiance of her husband and her mother. She finds refuge and a sense of self-worth not defined by her "duties" as a wife or her role as a mother. Abigail withdraws into the comfort of music and the church, only to eventually question the sustainability of both. The son turns to drugs and alcohol as an escape from the agony of not being able to live up to his father's notions of strength and masculinity (how paradoxical that the "last man standing" in the family are actually the women). This novel is complete with excellent writing, a strong, viable story line and extraordinary characters (Ansay was even able to elicit from this reader a bit of compassion for the father). Ansay's use of language is precise and at times quite poetic. The novel underscores the truth that family shapes the offspring and that faith is larger than a church.

Rating:
Summary: A almost true life story of a friend of mine.
Review: Wow this story hit home. The story reminded me so much of it.

Abby and her family were semi-normal people who had there own problems in life and each dealt with it in there own ways. Sam, Abby's brother chose to run away from home and do other various bad things in his life to forget about things. Abby later on in her life moves away from home and her belief's in the church, and her father he just runs away because he has enough problems in his life to deal with.

The way the author went back and told a lot of what happen between the family and Sam made the book go at a fast pace. I was always wanting to know what happen and what went on. As you follow Abby in her life you realize just how much it hurt her to not be with her brother and to not know where he was.

Overall this book was wonderful and had some very good points in it.