The Language of Sisters: A Novel
Yurk's second novel begins when Nicole Hunter receives a psychic distress signal from her severely retarded sister, Jenny. After 10 years of estrangement, she phones her chilly, distant mother, Joyce, and learns that Jenny was raped by a nurse's aide and is pregnant. Leaving San Francisco and her lawyer boyfriend, Shane, she heads up to Washington to survey the damage. She is outraged that Joyce will not consent to an abortion for Jenny, who is unable to speak or care for herself, let alone a child. Nicole moves back into their childhood home to care for her sister and to face old demons, most notably the abuse that Jenny suffered at the hands of their father (who's now long gone), which neither she nor Joyce was able to stop. She reconnects with her childhood friend, Nova, who is both the unconditionally loving mother and the engaged sister she never had. As Nicole's relationship with Shane falters, she conveniently meets Garrett, a handsome divorc‚ with a toddler of his own. Watching Nova nurture her four children, Nicole develops feelings for Jenny's unborn child that force her to make some life-changing decisions. While the novel has serious flaws-Joyce's character is woefully underdeveloped; there are some rather hokey "psychic" goings-on; and the writing is at times just plain bad ("juicy feelings I could barely name")-it is worth reading because Yurk (The Kind of Love That Saves You), whose own sister was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome, so skillfully describes the experience of living with and caring for a person with special needs.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.