Book Review: The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters

I read this book on purpose. That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? How in the world could someone accidentally read a book? What I mean is, it wasn’t a book that my sister forced on me, or that a friend recommended, or that I had to read for one commitment or another. I browsed around the bookstore, looking for something I wanted to read. Something that was fun and breezy and witty with snappy word choices. I even test drove the first ten pages to make sure I wasn’t buying a clunker.

Those first ten pages? I loved them. The narrator was funny, satirical, maddening (in a fun, quirky way), deliciously flawed, and a good story teller. She was writing the fourth draft of her suicide note, for crying out loud! What a great way to start!

Sadly, that’s about where the story stalled for me. Part of it was the B-storyline – Olivia Hunt, the narrator, was a struggling movie producer and I really can’t get into all these behind-the-scenes Hollywood stories. I’m just not that into that backstabbing, gossipy, fake-smile Hollywood scene. I’m sure another writer could have pitched it in such a way that I liked the story in spite of that particular backdrop, but the B-story just felt flat.

On the other hand, maybe it wasn’t just the B-storyline. The novel opens with Olivia flying home to be with her family, specifically her baby sister Maddie, who has just found out she has acute leukemia. The relationship between Olivia and Maddie felt underdeveloped, despite moments of poignancy. Perhaps it was because this was Elisabeth Robinson’s first novel, or perhaps it was the epistolary style Robinson chose, but I never felt these two title characters step up and own their potential. Where were these True and Outstanding Adventures of which they boasted?

There were flashes that made me hopeful, that made me keep up the struggle to finish each page. Inevitably, they were stories from when Olivia and Maddie were young. The tale of sleeping outside in the tree fort on a dare stood out for me. If Robinson had moved back and forth in flashbacks, or Olivia had supplied a “Remember when?” in each of her letters to her sister, maybe I would have struggled less. As it was, the few gems were buried beneath the rubble of too many characters who never made it past 2-D status.

Perhaps I’m being too critical. After all, True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters falls into the surprisingly large sub-genre of chick lit about formerly close sisters who reunite when one finds out she’s dying. This is the third one I’ve read in a row – unintentionally – and each has been worse than the last. (Is it any wonder that Marley & Me is next?) I threw all hope overboard when I realized – barely a third of the way in – why the narrator was harping on so much about the Quixote movie she was so desperately trying to string together: Olivia was Sancho. Maddie was Quixote. Olivia was getting schooled by her sister’s disease and would carry on her spirit. She, jaded Hollywood mistress that she was, would dream the impossible freakin’ dream. I hate when books broadcast the ending (and every bump in between!) so clearly. Annnnnd that was pretty much when I checked out.

In summation: Don’t buy it. I wouldn’t even borrow it. If you see it on a bookstore table for a really, really good price,  don’t get taken in by the clever title and instead just walk on by. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

Tags: book club, chick lit, goals, literature, reading