The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream by Jeannie Zusy: Sunday Salon

 

The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream: A Novel

by 

Jeannie Zusy

Publication, September 20, 2022, Atria Books

Description 

A very funny, occasionally romantic, and surprisingly moving novel about how one woman’s life is turned upside down when she becomes caregiver to her sister with special needs.

Every family has its fault lines, and when Maggie gets a call from the ER in Maryland where her older sister lives, the cracks start to appear. Ginny, her sugar-loving and diabetic older sister with intellectual disabilities, has overdosed on strawberry Jell-O.

Maggie knows Ginny really can’t live on her own, so she brings her sister and her occasionally vicious dog to live near her in upstate New York. Their other sister, Betsy, is against the idea but as a professional surfer, she is conveniently thousands of miles away.

Thus, Maggie’s life as a caretaker begins. It will take all of her dark humor and patience, already spread thin after a separation, raising two boys, freelancing, and starting a dating life, to deal with Ginny’s diapers, sugar addiction, porn habit, and refusal to cooperate. Add two devoted but feuding immigrant aides and a soon-to-be ex-husband who just won’t go away, and you’ve got a story that will leave you laughing through your tears as you wonder who is actually taking care of whom. (publisher)

My NetGalley/Goodreads review:

Bets, Ginny, and Maggie are the Frederick sisters whose relationships are featured in this novel. Maggie the third sister, becomes a caregiver for special needs middle sister Ginny, while the oldest, Bets, lives a life of California surfing.

Sisters and how they relate to one another, the sacrifices they make for one another, or sacrifices they don't make, are the themes. A surprising turn around at the end of the novel shows the sisters in a new light. 

The novel, however, takes too long to get to this point, frustrating the reader. The book could have been shorter and some of the middle events cut or omitted in order to get to the ending.

I enjoyed the first three-quarters of the book and wished the main points, though surprising and thought provoking, could have been reached earlier.

What are you reading this week? 

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon, Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

It's Monday: What Are You Reading?

Memes:  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Mailbox Monday.

The Pawful Truth by Miranda James, July 16, 2019, Berkley

Genre: mystery series

When Charlie Harris decides to go back to school, he and his Maine Coon cat, Diesel, find themselves entangled in a deadly lovers quarrel on campus (publisher)

The Ditch by Herman Koch, June 11, 2017, Hogarth Press

Genre: family drama, suspense

The bracing and inventive new novel of suspicions and secrecy from Herman Koch (publisher)

This was the only book that grabbed my interest the last time I visited the bookstore. That might change the next time I go, but for now this is my new read. It's different to me as I've never read any of Koch's books. Told by what seems an unreliable narrator, a man full of jealousy, who suspects his wife of having affairs with every other man she is in contact with. I can't wait to finish the book to see if he was right or just paranoid!

What are you reading this week?

Sunday Salon: Domestic Drama, Suspense

Domestic drama and books of suspense

The First Mistake by Sandie Jones, June 11, 2019, Minotaur Books

Genre: domestic suspense

(A) wife, her husband, and the woman who is supposedly her best friend.

Murder She Wrote: Murder in Red by Jessica Fletcher and Jon Land

Publication: May 28, 2019, Berkley Books

In what appears to be medical malpractice, Jessica learns her friend was actually a victim of something far more sinister.

Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok, June 4, 2019, William Morrow
Genre: suspense, family drama
In one Chinese immigrant family, the book explores what happens when the eldest daughter disappears, and a series of family secrets emerge.

The Last Train to London

The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton, September 10, 2019, Harper
This historical novel centers on the Kindertransports that carried thousands of children out of Nazi-occupied Europe in WWII—and one brave woman who helped them escape to safety.

The Chestnut Man

The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup, Sepember 3, 2019, Harper
Genre: police procedural, thriller
A madman is terrorizing Copenhagen. His calling card is a matchstick doll and two chestnuts. 

Gravity Is the Thing: A Novel

Gravity Is the Thing: A Novel by Jaclyn Moriarty, July 23, 2019, Harper
Genre: contemporary fiction
A single mother's search for happiness. 

What are you reading this week?

Memes:

The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer,  Stacking the Shelves. Also visit The Sunday Salon hosted by ReaderBuzz, and It's Monday, What Are You Reading by Book Date. and Mailbox Monday