MY SISTER GONE, by Kathryn Marshall; Clark City Press; 244 pages; $9.95 in paperback.
In the novel, "My Sister Gone," Kathryn Marshall explores the lives of two sisters who were abused by their grandfather.Carrie is an angry child who grows up to be a prostitute. Helen, the sister who tells their story, walks through life as if through a fog. Her mind "wraps" back on itself; she has periods she doesn't remember; she becomes a willing victim in any abusive relationship that happens her way.
In cases of incest, either the anger turns outward or numbness invades the soul. Carrie and Helen are textbook cases of adults who were abused as children, so accuracy is not a problem with this novel. Nor is there a problem with craft. Marshall can turn a pretty sentence and has a great sense of humor.
The problem is the reader doesn't care about the characters.
At the conclusion, Helen says, "I'd never understood what drove my sister: fear, but more than that, hatred, an explosive and yet insidious hatred. . ." Well, the reader saw that hatred when Carrie was just a bug-torturing child. Though Carrie can be hilarious, for the most part Marshall imbues the child's character with the bitterness of an adult. You want to like her but can't.
Helen, you are curious about. You wait with some interest for the adult to come to grips with her childhood. But the fog never lifts.
Kathryn Marshall understands plot, pacing and comedy. Perhaps the memorable characters will turn up in her next novel.THE ASTONISHING WORLD, by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison; Ticknor & Fields; 285 pages; $22.95.
"The Astonishing World" is a rare book. American Book Award and O. Henry prize-winner Barbara Grizzuti Harrison is a skilled writer, sensitive to her subjects, but at the same time fearless. She's not afraid to go off on a tangent, illuminate a minor point, leave the big landscape to someone else. She's a joy.
This collection includes pieces on Mario Cuomo, Budapest in winter, Gore Vidal, and a religious cult in Vermont. Harrison's essays ran first in newspapers or magazines - as profiles or news stories or features. They are unusual as news writing because Harrison violates a cardinal rule of journalism in every piece: She puts herself, center stage, in the story.
Yet she is so gifted that the first person works beautifully. You can't help but notice how much Harrison's presence adds to her reports. At the same time, as you read her work, you feel a growing impatience with less-gifted writers who attempt the same thing.
This is from her essay on prayer:
I do not like to burden God with gratuitous information. For example, I am sure He knows I'd like to meet Evelyn Waugh in heaven, so I don't tell Him that. One of the the things that makes God God is that He knows everything (before I know myself, He knows me); so when I have wishes in regard to other people, I just say their names. I let Him fill in the rest. I don't think He requires resumes or detailed specifications. In any case, He seldom arranges people or events in a way that is consistent with my wishes - though all may be (how would I know?) in keeping with my needs. I just keep on saying the names of people I love.
Believing in their goodness, I pray for the happiness of my children; I also pray, as all mothers do, to bear their pain, but on the evidence, God wants them to bear their own pain, more's the pity.
"The Astonishing World" made me want to read everything Barbara Grizutti Harrison has ever written.