Sister Crazy - Softcover

These sweet, humorous family vignettes are juxtaposed alongside fragments of Jem's life many years later, fully-grown and suffering from an undisclosed mental illness. The once overly delicate and ethereal Harriet is now Jem's greatest comfort, a sensible and calming influence on a woman who has failed to find her place in a more hostile adult world. At one point Jem asks, "When does childhood end?"--a phrase that seems to capture the essence of her predicament. Her incredibly strong feelings for her family members remain suspended in time, but their lives have all moved on and the reliable demarcations of childhood have evaporated forever. While the surreal family anecdotes sometimes outstay their welcome and the source of Jem's subsequent troubles remains unsatisfactorily muddy, this is still an inspired debut, seamlessly fusing comedy and sadness to fashion a fresh and original look at a familiar theme. --Jane Morris

‘The tone is confiding, the form original and I was charmed and impressed.’ Observer

‘A charmer with a dangerous undertow’ Time Out

'There is an enticingly breathless quality to Richler's prose, and in a childlike dash, she guides us through her elegy for lost youth. Her incisive observations on the intricacies of family dynamics are by turns whimsical, intense and darkly funny.' TLS

'Stunning...Richler has written a deeply moving book. Her language is electric, her formal poise astonishing in a first novel; her observations of the world of children, of the terror of madness, riveting. And she is bold and witty and will make you laugh out loud.' Lisa Appignanesi