"A tale of a not-so-perfect family, but a family nonetheless..."
Reviewed by Dot Dittman
Posted August 23, 2014
Women's Fiction
I was so excited about THE HURRICANE SISTER and a discovery
that I
thought I'd made that I did something I don't usually do. I
took a sneak peek into what other reviewers were saying.
Evidently, some reviewers did not find this book to be the
complex compelling novel that I did. Some believe that THE
HURRIANE SISTERS by Dorothea Benton Frank is not quite up
to her usually high standard.
I disagree. I believe she has been exceptionally clever and
subtle in this book while addressing the sensitive social
concern of domestic violence. She builds the story steadily
and slowly like a storm rumbling in the distance. Tension
is everywhere even when it is belied by humor. Alternating
viewpoints of the same incident give a sense of urgency and
enables the reader to see that each person has motives for
what they do, even if their reasoning is faulty.
Liz, a wealthy woman in her own right, is married to an
investment broker. Her character establishes one of the key
story lines in the book. Liz is on the board of an
organization that provides shelters and other assistance to
victims of domestic violence. She is always on the watch
for danger signals of abuse. She works tirelessly for her
cause but is she aware of what is happening in her own
family?
Clayton is an absentee husband and father who has distanced
himself from his children and wife. He lives to work and to
make more and more money. He belittles his wife's crusade,
his daughter's dreams of being an artist, and everything
about his son. Suddenly he wants something more...
Ashley¸ besides passionately wanting to be a successful
artist, wants to be the next "Jackie Kennedy" on the arm of
a handsome state senator who seems to be all that she has
ever wanted.
Maisie, Ashley's blunt grandmother, seems to be a free
spirit who seemingly has life all figured out. But why does
she have such animosity towards her daughter Liz? And why
does she always bring up the death of her other daughter,
Juliet?
All these story lines are like tropical storms swirling and
pulling at each other. Which character's story will develop
into the core--pulling everyone else into a final
confrontation not unlike the violent energy of a hurricane?
In the final moments, everyone is thrown together and
confronted by their failings and their fears. Will they
survive the damage of this emotional storm?
Frank has done some impeccable research on domestic
violence. The progression from mind control of the victim
to making the victim doubt herself and finally to the
victim taking the blame for the abuse is unfolded
gradually. Also, family members making excuses and not
recognizing the signs are both portrayed to perfection. The
gradual falling of the victim under the spell of the abuser
is told in a way that is upsetting to read, but also
masterfully done.
Don't expect a dark dreary read here. Frank somehow
suffuses the book with her own brand of Southern humor. For
instance: Maisie, when she is introducing herself at her
eightieth birthday, "...it was very nice for my daughter and
her family to arrange a dinner to celebrate my birthday
with me and Skipper. Skipper is the young man who squires
me all over town. He's sixty-five, I know. Bless my heart,
I'm quite the scandal."
Most of the characters, while flawed, are likeable. Just as
I was ready to take sides with Ashley, Liz's story pulled
me her way, and so on with Maisie. It is essentially the
story of a family. As Liz puts it, "After all, we were all
in this soup together."
As I stated before, it is a complex read, but deceptively
so. It starts out slow and ordinary and escalates steadily
until the final rush at the end. I think it was purposely
done by the author. I believe it's one of her most
compelling books to date. The message of THE HURRICANE
SISTERS seems to be that while a hurricane is impossible to
stop-if we all band together-the storm of domestic abuse
will end...
SUMMARY
Hurricane season begins early and rumbles all summer long,
well into September. Often people's lives reflect the
weather and The Hurricane Sisters is just such a
story. Once again Dorothea Benton Frank takes us deep
into the heart of her magical South Carolina Lowcountry on a
tumultuous journey filled with longings, disappointments,
and, finally, a road toward happiness that is hard earned.
There we meet three generations of women buried in secrets.
The determined matriarch, Maisie Pringle, at eighty, is a
force to be reckoned with because she will have the final
word on everything, especially when she's dead wrong. Her
daughter, Liz, is caught up in the classic maelstrom of
being middle-age and in an emotionally demanding career that
will eventually open all their eyes to a terrible truth. And
Liz's beautiful twenty-something daughter, Ashley, whose
dreamy ambitions of her unlikely future keeps them all at
odds. Luckily for Ashley, her wonderful older brother,
Ivy, is her fierce champion but he can only do so much from
San Francisco where he resides with his partner. And Mary
Beth, her dearest friend, tries to have her back but even
she can't talk headstrong Ashley out of a relationship with
an ambitious politician who seems slightly too old for
her. Actually, Ashley and Mary Beth have yet to launch
themselves into solvency. Their prospects seem bleak. So
while they wait for the world to discover them and deliver
them from a ramen-based existence, they placate themselves
with a hare-brained scheme to make money but one that
threatens to land them in huge trouble with the
authorities. So where is Clayton, Liz's husband? He
seems more distracted than usual. Ashley desperately needs
her father's love and attention but what kind of a parent
can he be to Ashley with one foot in Manhattan and the other
one planted in indiscretion? And Liz, who's an expert in the
field of troubled domestic life, refuses to acknowledge
Ashley's precarious situation. Who's in charge of this
family? The wake-up call is about to arrive. The
Lowcountry has endured its share of war and bloodshed like
the rest of the South, but this storm season we watch
Maisie, Liz, Ashley, and Mary Beth deal with challenges that
demand they face the truth about themselves. After a
terrible confrontation they are forced to rise to
forgiveness, but can they establish a new order for the
future of them all? Frank, with her hallmark
scintillating wit and crisp insight, captures how a complex
family of disparate characters and their close friends can
overcome anything through the power of love and
reconciliation. This is the often hilarious, sometimes
sobering, but always entertaining story of how these
unforgettable women became The Hurricane Sisters.
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