The True and Splendid History of the Harristown Sisters
This novel follows seven sisters brought up in poverty, in Harristown, County Kildare, during the Great Famine. The seven sisters are usually at odds with each other but are united by the remarkable physical feature they all share: remarkably long, beautiful hair. Their hair is so special and unique that it makes the seven sisters stand out and eventually makes them famous.
The eldest sister, Darcy, is the first to realize the money-making potential the sisters possess in an age when a woman’s hair had erotic power. She drags her sisters onstage to sing, dance and unleash their hair to swirl down to their ankles. The seven become known as The Swiney Godivas (“seven beauteous flowers of Old Ireland in their first bloom”) and rise to fame and fortune, but the good times don’t last. They soon find themselves being exploited by their own sister, among others.
The overall thrust of the novel is tragic with occasional pinholes of joy as these seven women fall deeper and deeper into a demeaning existence. Not surprisingly, the sisters are happy to leave the telling of their story to others, who distort facts and reduce them from individuals to a brand. In fact, while the story is narrated by Manticory and is meant to be a sympathetic record of the sisters’ lives, even Manticory is tainted by greed.
The novel, although historical, offers the reader many themes that resonate today – the cult of celebrity, the branding of individuals for profit, exploitation of women and the shallowness and deceit far too commonly encountered in the course of life. I truly enjoyed the novel, and while accurately set historically, the message is just as poignant today. It’s another reminder that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
