Saturday, March 12, 2016

#317 Compassion-Dorothy Allison


#317 Compassion-Dorothy Allison

This is an extremely sad story about three sisters dealing with an infirmed mother suffering with cancer.  The sister’s don’t get along with each other. We learn that they had an abusive father, and the mother has been battling her disease for a couple of decades.

Allison does a great job with the personality traits of three siblings: the oldest is the responsible more serious one, the middle child is the black sheep with the chip on her shoulders, and the youngest tries to be the peacekeeper.

There is perhaps too much in this story that might not need to be in there, but I think the author was writing from place of her own life. Sometimes a writer tells a story because they need to get something down on paper. It seems very personal.

Allison said about this piece: “I wanted to find a way to talk about how embattled families occasionally act with unexpected grace.” She certainly accomplished that here.





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