Following the curves of the twentieth century, FALL ON YOUR KNEES takes us from haunted Cape Breton island in Nova Scotia through the battlefields of World War I into the emerging jazz scene in New York City, and immerses us in the lives of four unforgettable sisters. The children of a driven and ambitious father, the sisters -Kathleen, the oldest, a beautiful talent intent on a career as an opera diva; Frances, the drunken rogue and child prostitute; Lily, the pseudo-saint cripple; and Mercedes, the fervent Catholic and protector of the flock - are swept along by the tumult of events and of their own desires. This is a story of family relationships, racial strife, miracles, attempted murder, birth and eath, and an extraordinary love affair.
This was a very interesting story about a very odd family. It was a little disjointed sometimes, mostly because it would jump around in the timeline from time to time, but you could usually pick up what was happening pretty quickly. The description of the characters in the “back of the book” doesn’t really do them justice. I found myself rereading parts because something important would happen very quickly, and you wouldn’t realize the importance until later.
