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Review: The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

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The Weird Sisters book cover“Double, double, toil and trouble.” So spoke the three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, for whom The Weird Sisters are named. This unusual novel by Eleanor Brown is filled with quotes from Shakespearean plays, which makes the book completely refreshing, surprising, and fun.

The three Andreas sisters’ father is a Shakespeare professor in a mid-west college so he named his daughters for heroines from Will’s plays–Rose (Rosalind), Bean (Bianca), and Cordy (Cordelia).

Naturally these women have different temperaments and life has carried them in opposite directions. Rose, the eldest, is an organizer who doesn’t think her sisters are capable of any decision-making. Bean, the middle child, chose an upscale life in New York City and succumbed to materialism, and Cordy, the baby of the family, became a wandering, aging hippie. The three sisters are reunited due to the illness of their mother and must face the problems they thought they had left behind.

Rose’s fiancé has gone to study in London, and he wants her to join him. She is torn between her love for him and her fear that her mother won’t be cared for properly in her absence.

Bean has returned from New York with a lavish, stylish wardrobe and a ton of debt. She sees no way out, even by using all her wiles.

Cordy seems the most out of the loop since her wandering existence did not exactly give her marketable skills.

As the sisters help their mother and simultaneously work on their own problems, they are comforted by the fact that they are in their childhood home with all the memories which that evokes. Their parents are still their anchor even with advancing age and illness.

The Weird Sisters is an excellent novel. It would certainly add to the reader’s enjoyment if some of the Shakespearean quotes rang a bell, but I think it works in any case.

As the Bard said, “All’s well that ends well.”

I give the book 3 9/10 cauldrons.

Happy reading from Beverly!

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