Sisters and Strangers

by Emma Tennant

By the author of "The Colour of Rain" and "The Last of the Country House Murders", this book is a blend of fantasy and reality, a modern fairy-tale, retelling the age-old story of Woman and her eternal quest for what might be the grail.

Genres: Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Since the early 1970s, when she was in her mid-thirties, Emma Tennant has been a prolific novelist and has established herself as one of the leading British exponents of "new fiction." This does not mean that she is an imitator of either the French nouveaux romanciers or the American post-modernists, although her work reveals an indebtedness to the methods and preoccupations of some of the latter. Like them, she employs parody and rewriting, is interested in the fictiveness of fiction, appropriates some science-fiction conventions, and exploits the possibilities of generic dislocation and mutation, especially the blending of realism and fantasy. Yet, although parallels can be cited and influences suggested, her work is strongly individual, the product of an intensely personal, even idiosyncratic, attempt to create an original type of highly imaginative fiction.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very disappointed… So much potential in the idea of the ’universal’ woman, but the writing style and realisation of this fabulous idea just really wasn’t my thing. I couldn’t finish this book, very sad to say, and thereof the one star.

[Libby · Rating 1 out of 5]

The back cover blurb grabbed me. I really liked the idea of a story about the Universal Woman throughout time. I wanted to like it but by the second chapter I knew that the authors writing style was seriously grating on me - but I persisted - hoping that it would get better. It didnt. It's a shame because it is an awesome concept that could make an exceptional story.