The Bird Sisters
This story opens in the summer of 1947 in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Sisters Milly and Twiss are fourteen and twelve respectively. There does not seem to be the usual sibling rivalry because these girls are so different they somehow complement each other. Their father is a golf pro, giving lessons at the local country club and sacrificing his family to the sport.
A car accident changes his ability and causes a rift in the marriage. He moves to the barn and communicates through a series of notes carried by the girls. Their mother spends her time dealing with the local Sewing Society at church, where they scheme and judge each other with all the gusto found in small town cultures. She dreams of the life she set aside in order to marry and marks off the days until her niece, Bett, arrives from Deadwater. Twiss idolizes her father, but hardly a kind word passes between her and her mother through the entire book. Milly is beautiful and levelheaded. She is feeling the pangs of first love for Asa, who mows their lawn. All are subconsciously looking to Cousin Bett to change the tedium of their lives that summer. Her arrival does more than assuage the boredom; it changes them all forever.
The story moves between their youth and old age with a myriad of memorable characters from beginning to end. When Twiss puts happiness in Mason jars and sells it at the local fair, I was hoping it would work for all of them. But alas, the jar was just blue water and the happiness was a contentment finally realized in their old age. I learned something about sacrifice, too. I’d recommend this debut novel to anyone who had a childhood, which is all of us.
