The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream by Jeannie Zusy
9/20/22; 320 pages
Atria Books
The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream by Jeannie Zusy is a highly recommended novel that explores the relationship between sisters and the complications that can arise from being the caretaker for one of your siblings.
Maggie Frederick, the youngest of three sisters, realizes that it is up to her to take on the care of Ginny, her diabetic older sister with intellectual disabilities after Ginny nearly died from sepsis. Their oldest sister, Betsy, is off living in California. Ginny must be moved from Maryland to a nursing facility near Maggie's home in New York and her surly dog must move in with Maggie and her pets. Ginny, who is now in a wheelchair, is uncooperative, refuses to follow the rules, and won't curtail her sugar consumption.
As she tries to deal with Ginny's truculence over her care and
health, Maggie is also trying to work her freelancing job, raise her son
still at home, and deal with her separation from her husband. The
struggles of dealing with a loved one with an intellectual disability is
portrayed realistically, however, I wouldn't necessarily describe this
as a novel that will have you laughing throughout.
There are moments where the sheer absurdity of a situation and the
patience required to work through it will have you feeling Maggie's
frustration over everything and appreciate the foolishness illustrated.
Ginny's determination to continue eating vast quantities of sweets isn't
really funny and neither is her porn consumption. From personal
experience, there were several incidents that felt very realistic and
anyone in a similar situation will relate to Maggie's narrative on some
level.
The narrative is told through Maggie's point-of-view in a
stream-of-consciousness style that requires and assumes that you to feel
an affinity for her immediately. She has way-too-much she is expecting
herself to do and accomplish, which makes the connection a challenge in
some ways. The narrative does drag a bit and depends upon your interest
in the character's situation to propel your involvement forward. At
times this wasn't quite enough. Some of the shortcomings in the novel
are rectified or at least explained while others remain. 3.5 rounded up
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