Winner of the National Book Award: A Novel of Fame, Honor, and Really Bad Weather

by Jincy Willett

Book Overview

Set in Rhode Island, Winner of the National Book Award tells the story of twins who could not be more different. Abigail Mather is a woman of passionate sensual and sexual appetites, while her sister, the book loving local librarian Dorcas, lives a quiet life of the mind. But when the sisters are sought out by the predatory and famous poet, Guy DeVilbiss, who introduces them to Hollywood hack writer and possible psychopath Conrad Lowe, they rapidly...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031242423X
• ISBN13: 9780312424237
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Ferociously Funny!

This book has the single best opening sentence I've ever read in any book anywhere. That's saying a lot, because I have a classical education, and I'm a freelance editor. What's more, the book gets better and lives up to the electrifying excitement the opening line inspired in me. Read this book, and give copies of it as gifts. This is a book to proselytize about!

Dark, razor ship, and utterly sympathetic

Dorcas, a middle-aged librarian spinster who is intellectually sharp and movingly genuine, tells the story of her and her sister Abigail, who is sexually promiscuous, frustratingly undignifed, a blaze of ego and naivety, whom she loves but can never understand. Dorcas' tale is funny, dark, and recounted with razor sharp wit. The book starts off a little slow but with the introduction of Conrad Lowe, Dorcas' arch-nemesis, a third of the way through the book, it really takes off. Conrad is one of the most brilliantly written characters ever created--sneering and descipable, sexual and predatory, unpredictably sympathetic, and above all completely disarming, it is easy to see how he throws the sisters into a vortex of uncertainty. Abigail is furiously annoying; I actually felt my fists clenching when she appeared on the scene. Dorcas is one of those fine sympathetic first-person narrators you love from beginning to end. Never cliche or overdone, you never stop identifying with her. Few characters in fiction get written with the same bite that these three do. As the tale unfolds, we know it may end badly but we can't wait to see how it plays out.

Fun and Thought-Provoking

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait for someone I know to read it so that we can talk about it. The characters are well-drawn and convincingly detailed. The sisters' brutal honesty is refreshing. I found myself flipping to look at the author's picture several times, amazed by her often profound insights. I did not want to put the book down because it was exceptionally well-written and entertaining. I hope Jincy Willet is hard at work on her next novel. Meanwhile, I am reading her short story collection and it's very good, too.

Rhode Island explained

This is the story of the twin sisters Abigail and Dorcas Maher. They were born on the last day of 1938 and are, by now, in their forties. They live in Frome, Rhode Island, a state devastated by the sharp comments in this book.Dorcas is the town librarian and has the prunish character to go with it. Abigail was defiled at the age of 14 by the local football team and apparently enjoyed it. Hilda, a family friend, catalogs in a book all the terrible things that have come to Abigail's mind over the years and that have been executed by her and on her. At present, Abigail is in jail accused of killing her husband, while Dorcas reads through the biography. Her comments and corrections are the subject of this book.The two sisters loved each other dearly despite their opposite makeup. Sexless Dorcas never envied Abigail and her loose life style. She called her sister the Wife of Bath, with great power and no dignity. She herself would be the reverse. And then the devil in the disguise of suave Conrad Lowe enters the picture. He tries to seduce Dorcas but settles for the easier Abigail. And here comes the Faustian pact: Abigail must shed all the gross excess weight she carries around or Conrad will dissolve out of her life. Strangely enough, and for the first time in her life, she gives up, submits meekly and looses the required weight. But Conrad does not feel that the pact has been satisfied. He keeps maltraiting Abigail who cracks and kills him.The story is beautifully told, in full three dimensions and surprise happenings. It is not the belly laugh some commercial reviews promise, but it is full of wonderful little chuckles.. Foremost, it is an absorbing portrait of two women who seem so very strange and yet are so familiar.