IN MY SISTER’S COUNTRY

Sibling rivalry carried to the max in a first novel about sisters living unhappily together in Chicago.

While their mother is dying of cancer, high-school senior Molly moves in with her older sister Amanda, lifestyles editor at a magazine. A thoroughly subjective narrator, Molly portrays Amanda as evil, almost deranged. Molly’s antagonism fuels the plot, but whether it's justified remains a question (Haines drops occasional hints to the contrary). Years earlier, Molly and Amanda’s father, a successful therapist, disappeared. Their now-destitute mother, who may or may not have been her husband’s patient, sold their house and moved them to a tumbledown mansion she hoped to renovate. Amanda, then a teenager who managed the household for her weak mother, convinced her to take a boarder. Not allowed to meet him herself, Molly knew Amanda and her mother secretly made separate weekly visits to the mysterious Mr. Graf. As in so much of the story, the timeline and Molly’s age during this period remain murky: if Amanda, who has graduated from college and had time to become a successful professional, was then in high school, Molly should have been quite young when the secret of Mr. Graf’s identity was revealed, but she comes across as at least preteen and already jaded. Molly blames Amanda for much of the pain she and her mother went through, and she gets her revenge, at least in her own mind, by seducing Amanda’s boyfriend Nathaniel, a sexy if slightly perverted businessman who never coalesces into a real character. At the same time, Molly hooks up with a wealthy classmate who whisks her away to Europe to have his baby. The scenes with Molly’s mother achieve a genuine sadness and sense of loss, but in general the tale suffers from Molly’s unrelentingly brittle voice. Although Amanda’s behavior at the end seems to reinforce Molly’s accusations, Molly remains such a little bitch that Amanda gets the benefit of the doubt.

Adolescent angst.