Names My Sisters Call Me - Megan Crane

Names My Sisters Call Me
Megan Crane
5Spot

Chick Lit

The Cassel sisters have always been as different from one another as possible. On special occasions, their mother makes Cassel Cake: in truth, three different, smaller cakes, one for each daughter. Norah is the oldest, and a raging Type A personality. Raine, the middle daughter, is the wild-child hippie chick. And Courtney, the youngest, is a cellist who plays in a symphony orchestra. Their father left the family before Courtney was even born. He fled the East Coast, his pregnant wife (Beverley), and his two daughters, for California and freedom – and almost immediately died of a heart attack.

At that point, Beverley retreated into a grief so profound that it fell largely to Norah to raise Courtney. Consequently, Norah has always treated Courtney more like a daughter than a sister. As soon as Raine was able, she, too, fled for the East Coast. Unfortunately, she chose to make her exit during Norah’s wedding reception, while drunk. She also took with her Matt Cheney, Courtney’s first love. For six years, Norah and Courtney maintained a complete communications blackout with Raine. Their feelings were roundly reciprocated.

Now, Courtney is engaged to Lucas, a nice man who loves her and runs his own Internet security company. Thinking about her wedding makes Courtney nostalgic, and she wants both her sisters to attend. Norah immediately tries to veto this notion, but Courtney travels with Lucas to San Francisco to find Raine and try to reconnect. She finds Raine and Matt, still together, and still living a bohemian life. She’s ready for Raine to blame everyone but herself. She’s not ready for her reaction to seeing Matt again. Is it possible that, six years ago, she might have made the wrong decision? Is she engaged to marry the wrong man?

I like the character of Courtney. I’d love to be friends with her and talk about music and art. But, like her friend Verena, I think I’d have moments of real frustration with her willful blindness when it comes to her family. Of course, everyone has blind spots – necessary ones, usually – when it comes to family. But when your father hears that your mother is pregnant with you, abandons the family and then dies, how is it even possible that you don’t consider that you might have Daddy issues? How could you not contemplate that perhaps you feel (undeserved) guilt over the situation? Courtney’s excuse is that she spent her life with her music. She refuses to see what’s in front of her.

This book is more about Courtney finally being slapped awake after spending 28 years sleepwalking through the family dynamic than it is about choosing between Matt and Lucas. And it really works much better this way. Confronting her sisters, her mother, Matt, and even herself are all steps along the way to being a ‘real’ adult. The truth may hurt, but when it finally comes out, it can heal, too. This novel is wise, funny, sad, biting, smart, sarcastic, and all-too-true about the bonds between sisters and how they can stretch and change (maybe without breaking) over time.

Rating: 7 ½
April 2008
ISBN# 978-0-446-69856-6 (trade paperback)