Sister Crazy Book

Jem Weiss, the funny, temperamental narrator of Emma Richler's debut novel, Sister Crazy, has to navigate the proverbial perils of growing up within a sprawling, eccentric family. This coming-of-age tale is a well-worn path for debut novelists and at times Jem's stream-of-consciousness meditations on topics as diverse as Action Man, King Arthur and Einstein's Theory of Relativity recall the alienated, elliptical musings of Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield or The Bell Jar's Esther Greenwood. However, this isn't the usual tale of teenagers not belonging, but rather a story of belonging too much, of not knowing how to grow up and leave this wonderful familial cocoon. Jem is almost painfully close to her parents and siblings: her serene and almost supernaturally gifted mother; her ramshackle Jewish father; and her Action Man-playing elder brother, Jude. Then there's Harriet, the sensitive and capricious younger sister; Gus, the science-loving youngest sibling; and finally Ben, the wise, patient eldest brother. These sweet, humorous family vignettes are juxtaposed alongside fragments of Jem's life many years later, fully-grown and suffering from an undisclosed mental illness. The once overly delicate and ethereal Harriet is now Jem's greatest comfort, a sensible and calming influence on a woman who has failed to find her place in a more hostile adult world. At one point Jem asks, "When does childhood end?"--a phrase that seems to capture the essence of her predicament. Her incredibly strong feelings for her family members remain suspended in time, but their lives have all moved on and the reliable demarcations of childhood have evaporated forever. While the surreal family anecdotes sometimes outstay their welcome and the source of Jem's subsequent troubles remains unsatisfactorily muddy, this is still an inspired debut, seamlessly fusing comedy and sadness to fashion a fresh and original look at a familiar theme. --Jane MorrisRead More