Sisterhood of the Infamous

Writer: Jane Rosenberg LaForge

Publishing House: New Meridian Arts Press

Date of Publication: February 23rd 2021

Rating: 5 stars

‘’A body always begins a story such as this. My body, her body; mine to be burned, hers razed by violent action; to be discovered along a remote trail of russet hills and yellow grass, beneath a rare, open sky. She will be laid in a cemetery that becomes a stop on a tourist bus or a destination undertaken on adolescent pilgrimages. I will be spread on the water, to sink to the bottom, or evaporated into the nether-history of the air.’’

Barbara is dying. She is fighting cancer with her sister at her side. As her body is struggling in a desperate battle, her mind goes back to a turbulent and fascinating era. Prompted by a violent incident that results in the death of a woman from her past, Barbara reflects on a life full of challenges and hurdles. Her sister tries to understand the motives that led Barbara to the choices she made throughout her life.

Jane Rosenberg LaForge moves away from WWI and her beautiful novel The Hawkman and takes us on a journey to the 1970s, the era of doubt and reformation, social changes, challenges, the time when there was still hope for a new society. Within a very tender story, the writer weaves so many issues that are relevant to our time, themes that concern us all. The question of womanhood and the way women were – and still are – viewed as mothers and wives, and God forbid that we should ever desire to follow a career- originated life or choose to love a woman. God forbid that we should choose to ‘’ disobey’’ our parents and the orders of a narrow-minded society.

Motherhood and sisterhood define – for better or worse – our lives. The bond between the two sisters, two strong women with firm aspirations and convictions. Their relationship is put in jeopardy by the games of Fate and Fame, the mercurial force that calls s to sacrifice our feelings and integrity to ‘’ make it’’ to whatever ‘’City of Angels’’ dictates our dreams. Dreams that are built on sand. And Death is watching. The inevitable outcome, whether by natural causes, by a terrible disease or by violence, the end is certain and calls for reflection.

A beautiful novel about love, aspirations, thwarted dreams, loss and the fight of the human spirit as two women try to make amends with the past and with each other.

‘’My life will dissolve and dissipate, spike like influenza when this is done.. When a fever breaks, there is a sense of relief, of freedom from whatever pain there was. But my fever will not break this way.’’

Many thanks to Jane Rosenberg LaForge and New Meridian Arts Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.