Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Precursor to Holy Fools, November 1, 2004
Before Joanne Harris began writing about life in richly flavorful French villages, (think "Chocolat", "Five Quarters of the Orange" and "Blackberry Wine" and now more recently "Holy Fools"), she gave Victorian London a try in a Gothic piece entitled "Sleep, Pale Sister."
Poor sweet and barely adult Effie has been modeling for much older artist Henry Chester since he noticed her ethereal qualities while in the park one day with her mother. Although he can envision her pale face and smoldering eyes gracing each of his macabre death-themed canvases, he cannot seem to view her as an adult woman with emotions or desires. In fact, Henry seems to have many quirks regarding women in general stemming from childhood fixations on religion, purity and his mother and validated by the trend by physicians of the time to label women as hysterics and dose them with laudanum. Even though Effie plays the role of helpless child, addressing her husband as "Mr. Chester", sitting on his knee and unwillingly taking her "medicine", Henry continues to be annoyed as well as frustrated, frequenting the bordello he used before he was married.
To set the plot along its gruesome path towards the supernatural and murder mixed with the usual gothic touches, Harris injects into this unhealthy marriage another strange couple: the roguish Mose, a gentleman with ungentlemanly habits and the malevolent Fanny, the bordello owner whose desire to avenge her young daughter's death changes the foursome's lives forever with disastrous and ironic side effects
Not as compelling as Harris' more recent offerings, "Sleep, Pale Sister" nonetheless has its moments where the author's skill for creating unforgettably unscrupulous characters shines through despite the murky backdrop and sound effects necessary to recall the foggy gothic London of Jack the Ripper fame. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your point of view and your desire to read "Holy Fools", the two most interesting characters, Mose and Fanny are given less a voice than Henry and Effie---Harris employs the technique of using different first person voices to relate turning points in the story from various perspectives---as she later uses to a fuller fruition in "Holy Fools" where the character of Mose becomes more fully fleshed out as the redeemable Le Merle and Fanny takes on a younger, less harsh and more romantic persona in the character Juliet. Look also for Harris' more familiar themes of the unconventional versus the conventional and the role of magic, superstition and tarot readings to add spice to otherwise straightforward situations --- all features that kick the story up a notch in that way that Harris' fans have grown to love and expect from her.
Read "Sleep, Pale Sister" only if you are true believer in the almost lost art of the Gothic novel or if you enjoy reading anything by Joanne Harris.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a wonderful surprise by Joanne Harris - author of Chocolat, November 3, 2005
SLEEP, PALE SISTER by Joanne Harris
November 3, 2005
Amazon Rating: 4/5 Stars
Fans of Joanne Harris, most famous for Chocolat, will be delighted to read this older work by the beloved author, SLEEP, PALE SISTER. Originally published in 1994, it is quite different from her more current novels. SLEEP, PALE SISTER is a gothic novel, complete with ghosts, evil men and fainting women. Harris' taste for food is not apparent in this novel either. Basically, persons reading this book as their first taste of Joanne Harris will not know that this older novel is not typical of what she is known for today. Whether that is good or bad is left up to the reader.
The novel revolves around two characters, Effie, who is introduced when she is a young impressionable girl, and Henry Chester, who is a much older man, an artist who discovers Effie and falls for her, despite their age difference. Effie eventually marries Henry, when she is seventeen and he is in his forties, and Effie soon finds out she's made a big mistake. Henry's ideal woman is virginal and chaste, and the act of sex disgusts him. What Effie doesn't realize is that having sex with HER disgusts him, because he was attracted to her innocence, but his lust for women is lurking underneath his facade of purity and godliness.
Effie becomes ill quite often, especially after the miscarriage of her baby, and loses her love of life. Henry thinks she's just a typical weak woman, and lets her sleep away her days under the spell of the laudanum he insists she ingests. In the meantime, Henry meets Moses Harper, who becomes his protege, and Moses falls for the beautiful Effie. He's much closer in age to Effie, and notices how unhappy she is. The two start an affair, a dangerous deed since Henry has never hesitated to punish Effie if he felt she needed it.
Effie in turn meets Fanny Miller, a woman of ill repute who turns to Effie as if she were her own daughter. Fanny has her own secrets, one that includes Henry. The plot thickens as the four lives become intertwined.
The book is narrated by these four characters, each insisting that their viewpoint of the story is the truth. Henry insists that he is the one that was misunderstood, and the reader may sympathize with him for maybe a few pages, but as one gets to know him, the worse Henry will appear.
Those who love these gothic novels filled with dark overtones, paranormal beings and ladies in distress, this if for you. The only complaint I had was that the novel I felt went on a bit too long, but at the same time, I enjoyed getting to know the characters and was very engrossed by the story, eager to know how the book would end. It's not the typical Harris novel, so old fans be warned! I enjoyed SLEEP, PALE SISTER a lot and would have loved to have seen Joanne Harris write more books like this.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Harris' characters never fail to fascinate , March 20, 2005
Let me start by saying that Joanne Harris is one of my favorite writers - this book is a re-print of a novel that had first been published before she became well-known.
It features her usual blend of colorful characters (including the occasional spirit!) bound together by deep, and often dark, passion and magic.
Unusually, in this book she seems to have little sympathy for her characters - though I must admit that most of them really aren't all that likeable, the fact that even their creator can't sympathize with them or try to make some sort of excuse for them, makes them that much sadder.
I enjoyed reading it, but it's nowhere near one of her best works - I personally think she's at her best when writing about food, Chocolat being one of my all-time favorite books.
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