Marilyn French: Our Father (Vater Unser)

It's been a long time since my last book review. Not that I wouldn't have read in the meantime, but somehow nothing inspired me to write a review. Now this book I read, no - devoured, gets me back on the writing track. I read it in a few weeks, but remember it was in German and has over 600 pages.

The previous resident of our current apartment had left this book behind, so I picked it up in search of something to read before I could get a library card. I quickly became fascinated with the four adult sisters that have only their father in common. After the father has a stroke and is paralysed, the sisters come together and live for a while in their childhood home, not looking for companionship but finding it anyway in their sisters. The women become close again, and past secrets are revealed. All this time the father lies in coma in a hospital.

However, after he wakes up paralysed and unable to take care of himself, the sisters decide to take care of him at home. After that it really becomes interesting! But I won't spoil your pleasure of reading the story yourself. The book has a 90's feminist undertone, which I find refreshing in this time (the book is from 1994) and I find it good literature (but do remember, I'm talking about the German translation).

I found the story fascinating, the characters brilliant, though at times not realistic due to the very single-sidedness of the sisters; they all had their completely different world views and ways, in real life even distant sisters would be more alike. They were also somehow defined through some key traits, and their other sides were ignored. That didn't really disturb the experience, though. I could hardly set the book down at times. I recommend Our Father to anyone looking for a good read.