Oklahoman book review: 'Sisters Like Us' by Susan Mallery

"Sisters Like Us" by Susan Mallery (MIRA, 432 pages, in stores)

I picked up Susan Mallery's new book, “Sisters Like Us,” expecting a fun, lighthearted, slice-of-life story about sisters like Mallery usually delivers. I didn't expect to be made to feel so uncomfortable by the subject matter — women judging women for their life choices.

It is the perfect book for a book club, however, complete with discussion questions and recipes in the back for the designated meeting.

Mallery, along with many other authors, seems to understand the popularity of book clubs today. Reading is a solitary activity, but meetings allow readers to share their thoughts on particular books while connecting with others in social settings.

I suspect this book will bring a lot of emotion and opinions to the surface at such meetings. There will be much sharing, connecting, debating and parsing every character's motivation.

Harper is the sister who puts Martha Stewart to shame. Struggling to pay bills and raise a teenage daughter after a divorce, Harper launches a virtual assistant business while maintaining her long-held, mother-approved rituals of cooking from scratch every meal, setting an elaborate table every day and decorating every single thing she touches, glue gun always at the ready. It has been drummed into her that this is how a woman shows love to her family.

I'm most like this sister, but even my head exploded when, after preparing a multiple-course meal and hot-gluing flowers to napkin rings, she grabbed a stencil and sifter of flour to create rabbit footprints on the walkway for her Easter guests.

Pregnant sister Stacey, a brilliant scientist who rejects all things associated with a traditional housewife role, is paralyzed with fear that she will be a terrible mother to baby Joule (not Jewel). She refuses to acquire even a crib, denying the reality of a life with baby after delivery.

The cause of these extreme attitudes is the mother, Bunny, a hypercritical, passive-aggressive, self-absorbed, traditional product of a different time. I found Bunny's outbursts anything but humorous.

Added to the mix is a teenage daughter who embodies an attitude of entitlement and lack of responsibility cultivated by her grandmother's unfair criticism of her mother. What is a healthy balance of maternal attention and involvement?

We learn that Bunny's father was an astronaut in the early days of the space program, and he was not present for his family much. An astronaut makes the choice to sacrifice his family time, and risk his own life, to further science, and Mallery explores how that affects this family and how actions and choices still affect families generations later, like a “legacy” of dysfunction.

One discussion question in the back asks readers: "What events from your parents' childhood do you think affected yours?"

I see an attempt by Mallery to encourage understanding of how distant past events impact today's events in numerous, unvocalized ways. She advances compassion between the generations and begins the conversation about women caught between expectations of shifting time periods and societal attitudes.

This piece of contemporary women's literature confirms that whatever choices a woman makes in her life, they will probably draw criticism and engender guilt, if not from her own mother then from complete strangers.

Mallery is pulling a Trojan-horse trick, bringing forth hot-button, gender-related issues for examination and discussion but disguising them as a humorous romp. Deep thought will be triggered.

You know, I read books to escape reality. I'm not sure I can handle this much reality in my escapism. By the way, the recipes in the back are delicious.

— Marcie Everhart, for The Oklahoman