The Chimney Sweeper's Boy, Barbara Vine
This novel was recommended to me by Ellen, my voracious reader of a mother who knows a good story when she sees one. So as soon as I had finished The BK, I picked it up. The story is about a gruff older man whose only affection is for his daughters. He's a best selling author, dies suddenly of a heart attack, and the truth of them all just falls out. Ursula, the mother, the wife--nothing more. We find that her husband the author was really just an asshole who loved to steal the children's attention, pretend she didn't exist except for the necessary eggs needed to produce children. The daughters, Sarah and Hope, up and coming, forget about their mother and focus only on what their father left them with: nothing. They don't even consider going home for Christmas because if their father is dead, then there's nothing there. No reason to go home. The layers in this book are fascinating, amazing. You feel for each of them while wanting to slap them uncontrollably. Sarah has a relationship with a man who turns her on by treating her like shit in front of other people and once it's done, they rush out back and topple on each other like rhinos in heat. Meanwhile, she complete misses the misogyny with which her father treated her mother. That part of the novel is what fascinated me the most. The gist, however, is uncovering the man who made this family. Sarah is asked by her father's editor to write a biography about the man. She finds, first, that he is not who he said he is. Different name, different history, and a lot of secrets. It was a great book.
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