The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream by Jeannie Zusy

 

Every family has its fault lines, and when Maggie gets a call from the ER in Maryland where her older sister lives, the cracks start to appear. Ginny, her sugar-loving and diabetic older sister with intellectual disabilities, has overdosed on strawberry Jell-O.

Maggie knows Ginny really can’t live on her own, so she brings her sister and her occasionally vicious dog to live near her in upstate New York. Their other sister, Betsy, is against the idea but as a professional surfer, she is conveniently thousands of miles away.

Thus, Maggie’s life as a caretaker begins. It will take all of her dark humor and patience, already spread thin after a separation, raising two boys, freelancing, and starting a dating life, to deal with Ginny’s diapers, sugar addiction, porn habit, and refusal to cooperate. Add two devoted but feuding immigrant aides and a soon-to-be ex-husband who just won’t go away, and you’ve got a story that will leave you laughing through your tears as you wonder who is actually taking care of whom.

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About The Author

 Jeannie Zusy is an American writer of plays, screenplays, stories and memoir. Her complex and varied heroes and heroines are connected by their determined spirits and drawn with affection and humor. Her play "Kicking Inside" was published in the Smith and Kraus Best Plays collection, her short screenplay became a film directed by Oscar winner Eric Simonson. She's been published on McSweeney's. Learn more about her work at http://jeanniezusy.com/

 

My Review

A story that is full of family dynamics, three sisters and their lives, and we are there for the love, bickering, loss, and finding themselves and each other.
Betsy, Virginia and Margaret Frederick, sisters, and sometimes not talking to one another!
Betsy lives on the West Coast, Ginny begins this story in Maryland, and Maggie lives in New York. Then Ginny ends up in the hospital, and Maggie takes charge and moves her to a new home in NY, after that the family directions are up in the air. We have humor and sadness, candy and booze, along with a bit of romance, and in all, they are family.
Come along for a family ride of emotions, from tears to laughs, and beyond, and in the end we know them really well!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Atria Books, and was not required to give a positive review.