The True & Splendid History of the Harristown Sisters

by Michelle Lovric

"It's rural Ireland in the second half of the nineteenth century, the age of the Pre-Raphaelites, when Europe burns with a passion for long, flowing locks. So when seven sisters, born into fatherless poverty, grow up with hair cascading down their backs, to their ankles, and beyond, men are not slow to recognize their potential. Soon, they're a singing and dancing septet: Irish jigs kicked out in dusty church halls. But it is not their singing or their dancing that fills the seats: it is the torrents of hair they let loose at the end of each show. In an Ireland still hungry and melancholy with the Great Famine, the Swiney hair is a rich offering. And their hair will take dark-hearted Darcy, bickering twins Berenice and Enda, plain Pertilly, gentle Oona, wild Ida, and fearful, flame-haired Manticory--the writer of their on- and off-stage adventures--out of poverty, through the dance halls of Ireland, to the salons of Dublin and the palazzi of Venice. It will bring them suitors and obsessive admirers, it will bring some of them love and each of them loss. For their past trails behind the sisters like the tresses on their heads and their fame and fortune will come at a terrible price. Rich in period detail, peopled by a bewitching cast of characters, The True and Splendid History of the Harristown Sisters is a tale of exploitation and celebrity, illegitimacy and sibling rivalry, love triangles and financial skullduggery, of death and devilry. And a very great deal of hair."--

• ISBN10: 1620400146
• ISBN13: 9781620400142
• Publish Date: 12 August 2014 (first published 5 June 2014)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 10 March 2022
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Bloomsbury USA
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 480
• Language: English

Reviews

[clementine]

NOTE: Though I won't give away any specific details outside of spoiler tags in this review, I do talk about the tone of the ending - so if you don't want to know in a general sense where these characters end up, don't read on!

I was skeptical for the first hundred or so pages of this book. It starts off slowly, and I was iffy on the writing. It's strange to me; Lovric can surely turn a beautiful phrase, but at times her description verged into ridiculous territory for me. It's like she's unwaveringly averse to ever just calling something by its name. I don't have the book next to me right now, but there was a time when she described a drumstick as something like "a brown baton of meat" and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. These types of things seem to me to be so stilted that they jar me and take me out of what is otherwise - for a good 80% of the book - a truly compelling story.

I think what I like best about this book is that, contrary to the majority of classifications I've seen, it's not really historical fiction. I mean, it's fiction set in the past, but calling it historical fiction flattens it. How could someone describe the genre of this book without the words "magical realism"? Magical realism set in the years after the Irish potato famine, sure - but magical realism nonetheless. I mean, the narrator's name is Manticory, for god's sake!

I think viewing it through the lens of magical realism also helps to put the ending into perspective for me. Anyone who's read some of my reviews will know that I'm not often a proponent of a neat, happily-ever-after ending. And I did kind of feel cheated when Darcy died, Eileen became the sister they never had, Phelan Swiney, Mariner miraculously came back into the picture, Pertilly married a nice man, and Manticory ended up with the love of her life. But I suppose when you view the book as a tall tale, this type of fairytale ending makes sense. This also helps me to understand the characterization here, too; yes, many of these characters are caricatures - Darcy especially, but to a certain degree Pertilly, Annora, Rainfleury, and Tristan all fell into that category at various points for me as well. But I think understanding the novel as more of a fable than something meant to be completely believable helps to assuage these criticisms.

I loved the exploration of celebrity in the context of a historical framing. Many of the struggles the sisters dealt with seem not at all foreign to anyone familiar with today's celebrity culture. Though I found Lovric's writing clunky at times, I can't fault her for her worldbuilding; the book is incredibly dense and rich, packed with historical detail and as utterly believable as such a fantastical story could ever be. Although I do have gripes with this book, generally I think it's unique, fascinating, and above all compelling to read. I think I'll revisit this one in the future.