Customer Reviews

The Sisters Mortland

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Considering I was never able to make it through Rebeccas Tale, I did not really have high hopes for The Sisters Mortland either but since I cant turn down a new book with a great cover, I picked it up off the library shelf.

I am happy to report that I was hooked right from the first chapter in this haunting tale of the fateful summer of 1967. Told in several different narratives, you learn the story of Julia, Finn, and Maisie, three sisters who are living at an old convent with their mother and grandfather. You also meet a large supporting cast, which includes Dan, Nick, and Lucus, who will center around the rest of the book.

The Sisters Morland opens with Masie as the narrator. We learn a bit about her life at Wyken Abby and one by one she introduces us to the supporting cast and she takes us up to the point of when the accident occurred. We then move forward by twenty years and Dan takes up the narrative and we then slowly learn more secrets that could have possibly led up to what happened at the end of the summer of 1967. The story ends with Julia tying up some of the loose ends and bringing the story together.

The Sisters Morland is a clever story that twists, weaves and slowly lets the reading in n the big secrets that have been buried for 20 years.

Sally Beauman, author of The Sisters Mortland, weaves a fascinating and haunting story of love, secrets and grief mixed with a high level of intrigue. Her prose is taut with information carefully doled out throughout the story.

It is 1967 in Suffolk, England where we meet the sisters Mortland. Julie is beautiful, Finn is the intellectual, and 13 year-old Maisie is odd. They live with their mother Stella and grandfather in a crumbling medieval abbey where the nuns of an early era haunt the strange Maisie.

Lucas, a young artist in residence, is commissioned to paint the sisters. Along with Daniel (a local man with gypsy blood) who is a friend of the sisters, and Nick Marlow, a medical student, they all spend a tumultuous summer embroiled in life and love with Maisie as the observer and narrator in the first part of the book.

Lucas' painting captures the essence of the sisters and is completed right before a horrific tragedy occurs at the abbey. Some twenty years later, that painting has become famous and is shown at a retrospective. As Daniel narrates this portion of the book, we see his deterioration as a result of his obsession with the people and the events of that 1967 summer.

Following other catastrophic events that impact the novel's characters, Julie becomes the third narrator and fills in the missing pieces to this unsettling story.

Beauman's The Sisters Mortland, is a beautifully written, powerful and deeply moving story of an impoverished English family and the people whose lives are intermingled with theirs. The reader will be torn between the desire to read quickly in order to learn how it all ends--and to read each sentences slowly in order to savor the words.

Armchair Interviews says: The Sisters Morland is breathtaking and is highly recommended.

In THE SISTERS MORTLAND, Sally Beauman has created a captivating novel of emotional suspense. It centers around the tragic and mysterious events which take place at crumbling Ely Abbey, the childhood home of the three Mortland sisters and the favorite holiday spot of the men who inhabit the small orbit of their lives. While this description may sound gothic and romance, THE SISTERS MORTLAND is essentially a well-crafted literary mystery reminiscent of Kate Atkinson's CASE HISTORIES. The novel's heart is the summer of 1967, but it continues to follow the lives of the Abbey's summer residents for several decades. The sisters themselves are fascinating, modern girls, known for their beauty and intellect as well as their familial strangeness. Independent Julia, the eldest, has just returned from a year's graduate study at Berkley bringing with her remnants of the American summer of love. Bright, bookish Finn, the middle sister, is on holiday from Cambridge where she is nearly inseparable from Dan (the Roma neighbor boy), Lucas (the starving artist) and Nick (a neighbor and soon-to-be doctor). And finally there is Maisie, the brilliant thirteen-year-old who is variously described as "abnormal", "strange" and "special", but is endlessly endearing to the reader as she is to the other characters. If the tragic summer of 1967 is the heart of the book, the soul is the painting that becomes Lucas' masterpiece: a portrait of the sisters Mortland that eerily captures the mysterious beauty and pain of the Mortland family.
Ms. Beauman has fashioned a superbly shaped novel with superior structure and well-paced suspense. She masterfully feeds the reader just enough detail to keep create tension and leave one wanting to read further. The novel is divided into three sections with different characters serving as the first-person narrator. Interspersed between the chapters are clever bits of faux-historical passages from letters, histories and guidebooks about the Abbey. One of her most brilliant conceits is to allow Maisie to speak first, thus giving her an amazing resonance and believability. Through the eyes of other characters we learn that Maisie is possibly autistic but (as in Mark Haddon's THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT) her voice is so warm and authentic that we cannot help believing in her. Maisie composes exhaustive lists of things that interest her and she lives amongst the ghosts of the nuns who once inhabited the Abbey, but she is also keenly observant and possesses a deadly accurate view the lives of those around her. Later in the novel we hear the voices of Dan and finally Julia, each character becoming more startlingly endearing as they speak.
Beauman skillfully reveals the tragic secrets of the Mortland family. Her style is subtle and the reader must look for tiny clues along the way. In fact, and this is not truly a spoiler, not everything is fully revealed and, to a degree, some things are left to the reader's imagination. While some may find this frustrating, I found it refreshing for an author to assume so much intelligence on the part of the reader. In short, it was a fascinating and compelling novel that kept me awake at night in order to finish. If you enjoyed CASE HISTORIES or even Miranda Beverly-Whittemore's THE EFFECTS OF LIGHT, this book will have great appeal.

In 1967 in Suffolk, England, the three Mortland sisters and their mom Stella move into a medieval abbey following the loss of the family patriarch. Though in their twenties Julia and Finn have somewhat moved on, but Stella and thirteen year-old Maisie still grieve. Stella hires local artist Lucas Feld to paint a portrait of her daughters. Meanwhile for Julia and Finn, it begins as a summer of love with the middle daughter seemingly sharing trysts with Lucas, childhood friend Daniel Nunn or perhaps pre-med student Nick Marlow while Julia considers running off to London. However, the summer turns bitter when tragedy occurs.

By 1991, Lucas is a renowned famous artist whose highly regarded painting The Sisters Mortland will be the center of a retrospective showing of his works. Daniel never recovered from the tragedy of what started as his greatest summer, but ended as his hauntingly worst as he fixated on the three sisters and the tragedy that shaped all their lives.

THE MORTLAND SISTERS is a fabulous character study that grips the audience who want to know what happened to destroy the idyllic summer of 67. The perspectives cleverly shift with the changing eras. Maisie providing her viewpoint of the goings on in 1967; Daniel takes over in 1991 with his point of view of the "present" and what he recalls from the most wonderful and most devastating summer of his life; finally Julia brings closure to the drama. Each of the key players seems different and reacts accordingly to the events that Sally Beaumont lays out throughout the gripping story line. Readers will cherish this powerful character driven tale.

Harriet Klausner

My book club read The Sisters Mortland and we failed to find a single character we liked.The book is well-crafted but the story is primarily about mean-spirited individuals or people who are self-focused. The author never made a good case to prove Maisie was a challenged child. In the beginning she seemed the most sane of the lot. Then all at once she was the sister who needed never to be left alone. It is not credible to switch gears so quickly. The one person who has the sole possiblity to be a good guy, Julia's long-suffering spouse, turns out to be one of the major catalysts for the sisters' disasters. I am not sure I will be cruising Amazon for Beauman's next book.

The Mortland girls --- beautiful mean Julia, aloof Finn, and young "different" Maisie --- come with their mother, Stella, to live in their grandfather's home, a huge and ancient ruin of an abbey. Maisie instantly befriends the ghostly nuns who haunt the place and busies herself with the writing of many lists.

In the summer of 1967, family friends Dan, Nick and Lucas arrive for a visit. Lucas is painting the girls' portraits. When he works on Maisie, she entertains him with tales of the family's past. However, when Maisie tells of having her fortune told years ago, he scoffs and so she doesn't tell him what she saw in the fortune teller's crystal ball.

As the family begins to prepare to travel to Gramps's childhood home for their annual visit, their place is enveloped in a brooding sense of impending doom. Maisie (who wanders at night) spies Finn returning home very early in the morning, naked under her dress. Maisie worries that Dan's heart will be broken if Finn has been with Lucas, as she suspects.

Before the family leaves on their trip, Stella and her father work on their plan to ask Gramps's wealthy brother for a loan to repair the crumbling Abbey. Maisie slips away, spying Lucas furtively leaving for Cambridge on Julia's bike. Did he steal it? Maisie then overhears a passionate argument between Dan and Finn, followed by an equally passionate embrace. The house is filled with fear, distrust and despair. Maisie doesn't know what is wrong with her family but decides she must take action to help them.

As usual Gramps's brother rebuffs the family's request for a loan. However, Maisie acquires money through surprising means. During this transaction she learns that her family fears she'll turn out like her deceased father. What on earth does that mean?

The story picks up again in 1989 and becomes Dan's tale rather than Maisie's. The sense of impending doom turns to suspenseful mystery as Dan reflects back on a tragedy that occurred during the summer of 1967 involving the Mortland family. Lucas is now a celebrated artist planning to show his 1967 portrait, The Sisters Mortland, at a retrospective. Dan is horrified at the thought of stirring up the family tragedy and sorrow.

Dan's life is also something of a tragedy. His job as a producer of commercials ends, his father dies, and he lives in a drug-blurred depression (yet he is an entertaining, likable narrator). His life's central mystery is the tragic puzzle of the Mortland event that occurred during that long past summer. Where did it all go wrong? Why did it happen? How did he lose the love of his life? Dan gazes upon Lucas's famous portrait of the sisters and, fueled by the stew of many drugs in his system, finds clues.

This book is a riveting and realistic blend of suspense, romance, tragedy, and meditation on Britain's social classes. The reader glimpses bits of the true story, as if wandering the Abbey's labyrinth or peeking into the "Squint," a kind of secret periscope within the building. Piece by piece, the puzzle is assembled from the perspective of different characters. The author has an incredible talent for suspense, withholding information until the perfect time to dole out an intriguing snippet. Indeed, the story is almost excruciatingly enthralling and impossible to put down. A perfect ending is rare, but Sally Beauman has achieved it in THE SISTERS MORTLAND with a satisfying but not pat wrap-up. Highest possible recommendation.


--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)

When I picked it up The Sisters Mortland I expected a fairly standard, fairly commercial novel and was surprised to find a unique and compelling plot, interesting structure, and a writing style that qualifies as high literature. Despite its depth, this is a very "readable" book, easy to access, easy to rush as you work to unravel its central mystery. Another Amazon reviewer has complained that The Sisters Mortland is too much like the work of Thomas Hardy. That is not an unfair comment. I realized that I haven't felt so deeply or cried so much for characters in a novel since I read Tess many years ago. I finished this book about a week ago, and still find myself thinking about "the people" in it.

You will not like this book if you are looking for a traditional romance or a happy ending. You will like this book if you want to think about life's questions of identity, memory, morality, the meaning of art, and the truths and untruths of personal relationships.

I fought my way through this book and have nothing to show for it. I have never liked Hardy and this reminded me very much of his dreary novels. I appreciated some of the writing but the characters and the winding storyline were maddening.

Reading other customers reviews I thought "I must have read another book",which was a possibility, considering that it was published in Britain under a different title - "The Landscape of Love". On a second thought, even a third title, in Australia perhaps, would not save this full of plot and airs and rather insignificant and somewhat freakish novel from the oblivion it deserves. Plenty of characters, at least three sisters, some handsome abusive and abused guys, and lots of English countryside mist- all crash into a whole lot of nothing. The three sisters might be as beautiful as they are being described, but it does not turn them into attractive reading material. The men who paint them and fall for them drink and love and hate and suffer as cartoon heroes do. Consequently, a supposedly intricate plot leaves at least one question unanswered: what is it all about - and who really cares?

n 1967 Suffolk, an aspiring young artist dipped into his paints and created a marvelous work of art depicting three young sisters. Julia, Finn, and Maisie Mortland were as different from each other as possible for full-blooded siblings, and those differences are what shone in their portrait.

The completion of "The Sisters Mortland" also heralded a disaster that would haunt all those involved for decades. In the early 1990s, childhood friend Dan Nunn faces the past as he is drawn back to Suffolk. Forced to explore and reexamine the events of that summer, Dan must reconcile past hurts with his current life in order to step into the future--if he has one.

THE SISTERS MORTLAND is told from three key perspectives and bounces somewhat through time. The characters' stories reveal aspects and layers to what, at the surface, seems a simple tale. Deeply moving and emotional, this is novel will linger in the reader's mind as an all-too-human reality. It is a reflection of life's complexities as seen through very different eyes.

Sally Beauman brings formidable insight into the human condition to her work, and it shows. Fans will not be disappointed, and newcomers will recognize Beauman's writing for the unforgettable talent it is.

Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer
12/20/2006