Spinsters

SPINSTERS

by Pagan Kennedy

 

Nomination: Orange Finalist 1996

 

Date Read: January 1, 2022

 

Falling in love and falling apart are very much the same thing, muses Frances. For all of her reserved nature, Frances is the only sister who has ever been in love. Doris seems to flee from it like love is going to murder her soul. Until this point in their lives, both Frances’ and Doris’ hearts have been in hibernation as they watched both of their parents slowly wither away.

 

The girls felt it was their duty to nurse their dad after he fell ill after their mother died/ committed suicide. Her death was never black and white. But for all the pain their family had been through with a mentally ill mother, a Conscientious Objector father who was treated horribly during WWII and nearly broken, the daughters never even questioned their implicit duty to care.

 

And now they find themselves in the bizarre position of having no one and nothing to answer to. They are no longer tied to doctor’s visits and medication schedules and neither of them have jobs. They immediately receive a request to visit their Aunt Katherine, an aunt who’s home brought back fond childhood memories for both Frances and Doris. Yet as soon as they arrive, they both feel stifled and suffocated.

 

Under some lame pretense, the sisters take off towards home but get waylaid by a gentleman they meet in a bar who runs an inn. After Doris sheds her previous notions of herself, she embarks on a very brief affair with this man but leaves before either of them can really catch feelings. Doris is terrified of being beholden to a man like her mother was and would rather leave them than be left.

 

After leaving, they have no real direction and embark on a coast-to-coast road trip that ends around the Grand Canyon. By this point, Frances too has begun to self-evaluate what she wants in her life, who she really is and what she really wants. Apparently, it’s an 18 year old boy who’s about to leave for college and, incidentally, is the boyfriend of her 17 year old niece (yikes!). Hopefully, her better angels will prevail and she’ll avoid that mistake. But the beautiful part of this is that she has opened her heart again and is open to all possibilities. A charming book about how it’s never too old to grow, to evolve, to live fully.