Rating: 
Summary: Delightful; a great intro to Margaret Drabble
Review: This was my first Margaret Drabble novel although I have heard of her, and had a feeling I would enjoy her work. The Seven Sisters is such clever fiction. The story is told in four parts. The first part is in the main character's words - Candida keeps a diary after her divorce and her move to a London flat. I enjoyed this part very much, and was totally surprised with one particular part to come later on in the story. The book is serious, I suppose, but there were many laugh-out-loud moments in it. I highly recommend The Seven Sisters. Her style reminds me of Carol Shields, especially her novel Larry's Party.
Rating: 
Summary: Weird Sisters
Review: What a great idea - making a late-middle-aged woman the "heroine" of a novel! If only Candida had been a more likeable heroine ... or a much *less* likeable heroine, for that matter. I can only agree with other reviewers that the characterisation in The Seven Sisters is *excellent* ... but the narrator, Candida, strikes me as bland to the point of being irritating. I agree with Candida's own mild puzzlement that she managed to make and keep friends who, afterall, "didn't have to bother with [her]". I don't know why they did bother with her. And yet, people practically flock to Candida. The source of her apparent charisma remains a mystery to me. The book is peppered with tantalising hints and significant little details. And Candida's friends - who make up "the seven sisters" - really are a colourful, vibrant, and diverse bunch of older women. The thing that disappointed me most about this book was a dramatic shift and twist towards the end. I won't give the plot away - suffice to say I felt *betrayed*, which tells you just how absorbed I really had been in the story!
Rating:
Summary: Weird Sisters
Review: What a great idea - making a late-middle-aged woman the "heroine" of a novel! If only Candida had been a more likeable heroine ... or a much *less* likeable heroine, for that matter. I can only agree with other reviewers that the characterisation in The Seven Sisters is *excellent* ... but the narrator, Candida, strikes me as bland to the point of being irritating. I agree with Candida's own mild puzzlement that she managed to make and keep friends who, afterall, "didn't have to bother with [her]". I don't know why they did bother with her. And yet, people practically flock to Candida. The source of her apparent charisma remains a mystery to me. The book is peppered with tantalising hints and significant little details. And Candida's friends - who make up "the seven sisters" - really are a colourful, vibrant, and diverse bunch of older women. The thing that disappointed me most about this book was a dramatic shift and twist towards the end. I won't give the plot away - suffice to say I felt *betrayed*, which tells you just how absorbed I really had been in the story!
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