While My Sister Sleeps
by Barbara Delinsky
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Book Summary Information
Author: Barbara DelinskyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-02-17
ISBN: 0385524927
Number of pages: 326
Publisher: Doubleday
Book Reviews of While My Sister Sleeps
Book Review: Medical Emergency Prompts Evaluation of Family Dynamics
Summary: 5 Stars
BOOK REVIEW: A Medical Crisis Reveals Family Dynamics in Barbara Delinsky's 'While My Sister Sleeps'
By David M. Kinchen
After world-class marathon runner Robin Snow is struck down by a massive heart attack while on a training run near her western New Hampshire home, the dynamics of her family are gradually revealed in Barbara Delinsky's "While My Sister Sleeps" (Doubleday, 336 pages, $25.95).
Thanks to CPR administered by Good Samaritan runner David Harris, the 32-year-old Robin doesn't die, but she ends up in a hospital room, brain dead and on life support.
Robin is the center of the Snow family universe, adored by her mother Kathryn, the CEO of the family's Snow Hill Nursery, founded 30 years before. Younger sister Molly relishes her job working in the Snow Hill greenhouse, where plants are much easier to deal with than pesky humans like her self-obsessed sister Robin and her domineering mother Kathryn.
The men in the family are, true to male stereotypes, generally silent. Kathryn's husband Charlie is a PR/marketing whiz and is a rock-solid, non-dramatic counterpart to his wife. Their son, Chris, 29, is married to Erin with an infant girl he adores. Erin wants Chris to talk to her more when he comes home from work, but Chris, an accountant who handles the Snow Hill Nursery's financial affairs, wants to get away from his work day at home. He wants to watch the Red Sox in action on TV, not chatter about debits and credits.
Prolific author Delinsky, who writes under her own name and -- like Joyce Carol Oates, Ruth Rendell and many other authors of both sexes -- under a variety of pseudonyms -- breaks out of the women's fiction ghetto with "While My Sister Sleeps." It's a book men should enjoy as much as women and, guys, we can learn something about the women in our lives by reading it.
We gradually learn about the complex relationship between Molly and Robin as the story unfolds; the same is true of Kathryn, whose obsession with Robin diminishes her interaction with other family members, especially her mother Marjorie, in a nursing home with Alzheimer's disease. More secrets are revealed when Molly discovers among Robin's possessions a compact disc diary.
Chris, Charlie, David and reporter Nick Dukette are well drawn, fully realized characters. Many men can identify with Chris and his desire to put his work day aside and enjoy his quality home time.
David, a middle school teacher, is seriously concerned about the apparent anorexia of Alexis Ackerman, one of his students whose also the daughter of his boss, Wayne Ackerman, the school superintendent. Alexis' parents are as driven as Kathryn over their daughter's dancing. Alexis justifies her waif-like appearance by saying all dancers are thin, denying that she's suffering from an eating disorder.
As one would expect, the Snow family is divided over the issue of taking Robin off life support. Chris is in favor, Kathryn is adamantly opposed, Charlie is willing to go along with whatever Kathryn wants and Molly is torn by her love-hate relationship with Robin.
Nick Dukette, a reporter for the local newspaper, is driven by his love for Robin, which was not totally reciprocated, and his ambition to parlay the story of her life and career to a bigger newspaper/publishing market than the "Live Free or Die" state.
Nick is a much more complex character than the almost-too-good-to-be-true David Harris. He was a friend of Molly's before he met Robin and Molly suspects, with good reason, that he used their relationship to hook up with Robin.
"While My Sister Sleeps" includes a book club readers' guide; it's an ideal choice for book groups, dealing as it does with subjects most families will face sooner or later.
Summary of While My Sister Sleeps
Following the success of The Secret Between Us, a book the Boston Globe hailed as ?one of her best,? Barbara Delinsky returns with another moving and deeply satisfying novel, this one about the unique and emotionally complex world of siblings.
Molly and Robin Snow are sisters, and like all sisters they share a deep bond that sustains them through good times and bad. Their careers are flourishing?Molly is a horticulturist and Robin is a world-class runner?and they are in the prime of their lives. So when Molly receives the news that Robin has suffered a massive heart attack, she couldn?t be more shocked. At the hospital, the Snow family receives a grim prognosis: Robin may never regain consciousness.
As Robin?s parents and siblings struggle to cope, the complex nature of their relationship is put to the ultimate test. Molly has always lived in Robin?s shadow and her feelings for her have run the gamut, from love to resentment and back. The last time they spoke, they argued. But now there is so much more at stake. Molly?s parents fold under the devastating circumstances, and her brother retreats into the cool reserve that is shattering his own family. It?s up to Molly to make the tough decisions, and she soon makes discoveries that destroy some of her most cherished beliefs about the sister she thought she knew.
Once again New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky brings us a masterful family portrait, filled with thought-provoking ideas about the nature of life itself, how emotions affect the decisions we make, and how letting go can be the hardest thing to do and the greatest expression of love all at the same time.
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