Once We Were Sisters

Starred review from October 15, 2016
Novelist Kohler (Dreaming for Freud, 2014, etc.) reflects on her beloved older sister, Maxine, who was tragically killed in a car accident at the age of 39.In this intimate, exquisitely written memoir, the author's first work of nonfiction, she explores the impenetrable bond that can exist between sisters. As the daughters of a wealthy white timber merchant, Sheila and Maxine enjoyed all of the privileges of living on a vast estate outside of Johannesburg in the postwar years under apartheid. Yet upon their father's untimely death, their seemingly idyllic lives were disrupted as their domineering and impulsive mother abandoned their home and moved with the girls to various new settings. In chapters alternately moving back and forth in time, Kohler recalls pivotal moments throughout their lives: their experiences living on the family estate, being shuttled off to an Anglican boarding school, and their glamorous travels to European cities together as young women, travels that unfortunately led to their early and regrettable decisions to marry. Eventually, raising their families in different cities, each was forced to confront unfaithful husbands--in Maxine's case, an increasingly violent man who would become responsible for her death. Through these shifts of time and with an expanding consciousness, Kohler subtly seeks to unravel secrets that emerge within each individual. Maxine's life and the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death serve as a touchstone and became a source of inspiration for the author's writing. "In story after story," writes Kohler, "I conjure up my sister in various disguises, as well as other figures from our past. Her bright image leads me onward like a candle in the night. Again and again in various forms and shapes I write her story, colored by my own feelings of love and guilt." In spare, delicate prose, Kohler brings a seasoned novelist's skills to this deeply moving, compelling memoir.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2016
Kohler (The Bay of Foxes, 2012; Dreaming for Freud, 2014) has previously written about her sister, Maxine, in her fiction. It was one way she dealt with her sister's tragic death, at only 39, in a car accident that Kohler is convinced Maxine's abusive husband orchestrated. In this memoir, Kohler writes about Maxine without the veil of fiction. The sisters grew up privileged in South Africa, where their parents' wealth made it possible for them to have a childhood that included servants, boarding schools, trips to Paris, and an ignorance to apartheid's injustices. Both girls married young, to passionate yet terribleand in Maxine's case, extremely violentmen, and Kohler depicts idyllic childhood moments giving way to disturbing marital scenes. Uniquely, Kohler relies on her memory while also acknowledging its limits, even periodically allowing one of the included photos to negate her words on the page. It all makes for a tragic yet gorgeous story that will appeal to those interested in the nature of memory, South African history, and fraught family relationships.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)