The Sunshine Sisters
by Jane Green
The title and the cover seem to promise a silly beach read, but The Sunshine Sisters is actually about three very different sisters coming together as their terminally-ill mother decides to end her life. Suddenly the title and cover seem out of place, don’t they? Full of flashbacks and told from alternate perspectives in different chapters, if you don’t read it relatively quickly, it might get confusing.
There is one line of dialogue, however, that is so silly and so awful, it’s quickly become a catchphrase among my family and friends. One of the sisters becomes involved in a romantic relationship with a woman (despite being written as a character without those inclinations) and when her sister walks in on them in bed together, her reaction is ridiculous. Full of acceptance and smiles, she immediately bounds downstairs to bring them both breakfast in bed, not before calling, “Yay, lesbians!” out the door. I’m not kidding. The reactions of the other characters in the book were also too accepting too quickly, as if the authoress had a personal axe to grind. I can’t imagine any young man truly being glad that his mother is sleeping with his girlfriend’s mother. That’s just not a healthy situation, and to me, it’s unbelievably selfish, not taking the kids’ potential feelings into account. This portion of the book, which quickly dominates the second half, seems far too defiant for my taste, taking the tone that had any one of the characters not been immediately congratulatory and ecstatic at the sister’s change in sexual orientation, he or she should be shamed and ridiculed and unforgiven. It’s not realistic writing, since everyone comes to terms with those situations in their own time and way. True acceptance would show the new lesbian character accepting varied responses around her and trusting that those who truly love her will realize she’s trying to find her way.
There is one line of dialogue, however, that is so silly and so awful, it’s quickly become a catchphrase among my family and friends. One of the sisters becomes involved in a romantic relationship with a woman (despite being written as a character without those inclinations) and when her sister walks in on them in bed together, her reaction is ridiculous. Full of acceptance and smiles, she immediately bounds downstairs to bring them both breakfast in bed, not before calling, “Yay, lesbians!” out the door. I’m not kidding. The reactions of the other characters in the book were also too accepting too quickly, as if the authoress had a personal axe to grind. I can’t imagine any young man truly being glad that his mother is sleeping with his girlfriend’s mother. That’s just not a healthy situation, and to me, it’s unbelievably selfish, not taking the kids’ potential feelings into account. This portion of the book, which quickly dominates the second half, seems far too defiant for my taste, taking the tone that had any one of the characters not been immediately congratulatory and ecstatic at the sister’s change in sexual orientation, he or she should be shamed and ridiculed and unforgiven. It’s not realistic writing, since everyone comes to terms with those situations in their own time and way. True acceptance would show the new lesbian character accepting varied responses around her and trusting that those who truly love her will realize she’s trying to find her way.