Love a good unnamed narrator, and this was a great literary fiction book. Definitely will have to read more from this author!

In this short novel, Tuck describes the thoughts of a second wife. This woman had met her husband while he was still married and started an affair with him. It led to divorce and her marriage to that man. He had two teenage children. The second wife spends a lot of time thinking about the first wife, what her life is now and who is better off.

At first the second wife feels that she is the winner, that she has taken what the other woman cherished. But as her sense of victory diminishes and her desire for her husband wanes, she begins to fantasize that the other woman has been the ultimate victor and that she has won freedom to live her life as she wants with no one to interfere.

Lily Tuck was born in Paris and writes novels that delve into the psychological makeup of her subjects. One of her novels was a National Book Award winner. In this study, the second wife goes from feeling like a victor to a loser and her marriage which seemed like a glittering prize now is tarnished and worth little. The genesis of the book was the former common practice of a man whose wife died marrying her sister and how that plays out in our modern life where divorce is common and women must form some type of relationship with their predecessor, especially if children are involved. This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.

Advanced Reader copy - Enjoyed this book, really opened my eyes and made me seek out other similar books to read.

I tried my best to read this but it appears that the galley I received was missing sections. From what I can tell there should have been chapters and around 150 pages. The galley I have is one long narratives that is way too short to be 150 pages. It’s not even cohesive enough to be a sample.

Oy. I can absolutely see Tuck's skill as a writer, but I found myself questioning the overall objective here of what she was trying to accomplish and what this story was intended to be.

A very short read, more of a long short story than a novel - despite the label of novel on the book cover. Slim and slight, although engrossing, but I was expecting a longer read so felt blind-sided by its brevity.

This is one quick read. A short story about a second wife, living with insecurities in her marriage and constantly comparing herself and her marriage to her husband's first. The second wife is obsessed with the first wife. Written in stream of consciousness, the story jumped from one thing to another, making it confusing to notice when a subject changed. It does read like you're inside the second wife's head, though. The short length made it hard to dive deeply into the few characters - they didn't even have names - but it was written in such a way that had me wondering about the details that weren't on the page. The snippets left me wanting a little more, perhaps, closure? The ending was not surprising yet satisfying. I didn't have much empathy for the character so any ending would have been satisfying, really. Entertaining enough to pass the time but nothing spectacular. Good for a quick read.

The book so nice, I read it twice!

Seriously. I did. I actually forgot that I had already read it and read it again.

This is really more of a novella than a full length novel, but that's all it really needed to be. The protagonist is an unnamed second wife and the first wife, known only as "she" looms large - in fact, we hear far more about her than the husband. She's more than a little obsessed, more than a little jealous, but what is unclear is why. Her husband seems quite happy with her and she seems to have a contented life - which she blows all to hell based on, what? Suspicions, whether founded or not? A clue which may mean nothing? This was well-written, and intriguing....I wanted to know more, but perhaps this was just enough.

A short novel, just over 150 pages, “Sisters,’’ tells the story of a marriage. Told in the first person by an unnamed narrator who happens to be wife #2. Wife #2 is obsessed with finding out everything she can about her husband's first wife, (also unnamed). She plans ways to run-into her, has conversations and questions her two teenaged step-children and, when it feels okay to do so, questions her new husband. Where wife #1 is tall and blond, wife #2 is short and dark. Both women live in Manhattan and, the husband, who travels a lot for work, is mostly out of the picture, but we do get a good glimpse at the way the couple meets and his inner persona.

I loved the writing and the fact that it written is very short chapters, this is one enjoyable book, that is meant to be read slowly and savored. An intimate look at a marriage, obsession, infidelity. Loved this little gem.

Elegant. The first word that came to mind reading this beautiful jewel of a book was elegant. Because of its brevity, this novella may be dismissed as superficial, but it is so much more. Interspersed with the glimpses into life as the second wife are tidbits of culture, history, odd facts, music, and literary references. Despite the use of "she" in italics, it was apparent that the narrator (never named) held no animosity, but a healthy curiosity about the woman who came before her. It's a very relatable emotion to wonder, if not always aloud, whether your partner's prior relationships were better than you (in bed or not), and not just "different". What a wonderful way to spend a quiet hour, reading this book.

Our unnamed narrator is unsure of her footing in her marriage. She constantly feels like she's walking in the shadow of her husband's ex-wife---never good enough, exciting enough, motherly or wifely enough. The book is presented as a series of short vignettes, almost like diary entries, and in each chapter the narrator shares various moments that inevitably made her feel insecure:  her stepdaughter's wedding, an argument with her husband, a chance encounter with her husband's ex, etc. The narrator's worries and fears are most prominent, and not much actually happens in the story until the very end.

I don't often give one star reviews, but this book earned it. It may be that Sisters is just over my head. I can easily imagine The New Yorker calling it elegant and tastefully restrained or some BS like that. To me it just felt tedious. And heavy handed. Also pretentious, irritating, and so very SERIOUS. It might very well be that author Lily Tuck didn't really want her characters to be sympathetic, but it's hard to read a book about people you don't like---and not because they're deliciously evil, but because they're boring and basic and stupid. Good grief, this book has no soul. 

If you're looking for something written in a similar style about a woman trying to understand and navigate complicated life circumstances, I'd recommend reading Lillian On Life, Hausfrau, or My Name Is Lucy Barton. Truly, anything would be better than Sisters.

This is a daring and wonderful story about what it is like to be a stepmother, and the feeling of sisterhood (both love and hate) that exists between women who are forced to raise children together. Not what I expected, this is an interesting but very short read and I wanted to know more.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC for my Kindle.
Great prose and could have a really good story, but it was too short and ended abruptly.

I LOVED this book! I felt pulled in by the story, hooked by the narrator, at times I couldn't put it down. I'm curious how it could be so well written and clean, yet have such a mind screw for a story line. I'll be rereading this one!

In this well-crafted, potent novel, a woman shares her marital insecurities. The unnamed woman lives with her husband and his two children. Author Lily Tuck deftly brings us into this woman’s world and into her mind as she competes with her husband’s first wife. She questions everything about her relationship with her husband, from not having her own children [“The girl, slightly older, was hostile. Not having children of my own, I tried too hard to please them. I wanted them to like me-- to love me--and I allowed them liberties that, in retrospect, I should not have.”] to not having the right career [“I have a career, but I am not a pianist or an artist. My career gives me some financial freedom, it gets me out of the house, but it is not all consuming. If I had to give it up tomorrow, it would not matter much. I am not passionate about my work.”] She explains that not having children even affected her relationship with her sister--“Eloise is a few years younger than I am and we have never been close. Less so once she got married and she had kids, reasons I suppose for her to act superior to me. I’ve met her kids. Her kids are surly and overweight.” She’s so obsessed with her husband’s first wife that she’s perplexed that he doesn’t seem to care about her past romances--“And despite my own reservations about speaking of it, I have to admit that his lack of curiosity about my love life was not flattering.”

Stream of consciousness books need to be more interesting to keep me interested. Just not my type of book.

Story about a first and second wife. Wife number one seemed to be obsessed with wife number two. The husband of both of these women left a lot to be desired. I honestly didn't know how he managed to get two women to marry him. The story was a bit confusing in a few places, but overall, a decent read. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

The "sisters" in Sisters by Lily Tuck are two women who are at different times married to the same man. This is a book of wife number 2's obsession. The story is a stream of consciousness tell-all that sounds like it comes from a therapist's couch. The book is memorable for its unlikable main character, its short length, and its unusual approach. Unfortunately, certain turns of this obsession ultimately make this not the book for me.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2017/09/sisters.html

Reviewed for NetGalley