- Paperback: 752 pages
- Publisher: Scribner; New edition edition (5 Sep 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0743252373
- ISBN-13: 978-0743252379
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13 x 4.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 286,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
AMAZON.CO.UK
Sometimes, a book comes along that demands attention, so considerable is its achievement. Peter Rushforth’s Pinkerton’s Sister has all the earmarks of being such a book, with the twenty-five years it took to write resulting in a novel that his publishers (for once) are fully justified in calling a ‘tour de force’. This is a sprawling, ambitious, richly detailed piece of work that recalls Joyce's Ulysses in its panoramic picture of a whole society, presented through a series of sharply observed mini-portraits (although Rushforth is more immediately accessible than his great predecessor).
Set in turn-of-the-century New York, Rushforth’s subject is the Pinkerton family, still yoked in pre-Twentieth Century ways. Alice Pinkerton is treated with care and indulgence by her family as she is ’special’; somewhere on the fringes (as her family perceives it) of sanity, and taken out to social events but always nervously observed. Alice has her own world, constructed out of the books she loves --and this literary conceit is the engine of Rushforth’s remarkable book. Alice has enriched her mind with the gothic menace of Jane Eyre and the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, the wit of Oscar Wilde, the glorious poetry of Shakespeare, the insights of Walt Whitman. With laser-like penetration, she cast a cool eye on the follies of the world around her, her observations honed by the great work of literature that are her inspiration.
Over two decades ago Peter Rushforth published his first book, the much-acclaimed Kindergarten, and that small masterpiece has lacked a companion for many years. The wait was well worthwhile: Pinkerton’s Sister may be an arm-straining volume at 729 pages, but amply rewards the patient reader’s close attention. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
At the beginning of the twentieth century in a well-heeled New York suburb, Alice Pinkerton decides to escape the suffocating constraints of her upper-class upbringing by eschewing the real world in favour of an imaginary life lived inside her head. At thirty five, Alice is an embarrassment to her family - not quite mad, but eccentric, silent and a bit of a simpleton - who earns her keep only as an amusing curiosity to be prodded and poked by family, friends, doctors and priests. But the reality is that Alice's intelligence and imagination are second to none. Appalled by the simpering kow-towing to social norms and disgusted by the accepted hypocrisies of the day, Alice outwits her peers, outthinks her family and intellectually bulldozes the professionals who purport to help her. She rails silently against the injustices done to women, claiming that a glittering career as a writer has been denied her because of 'beardlessness'. She decides to play the part expected of her with humour and grace, knowing the dullards and sycophants she is surrounded by will never guess at the richness of her imaginary world. 'Another busy day in the life of a madwoman', she tells herself. 'Time to ignite a few bed-curtains.' Peter Rushforth has created an extraordinarily complex character in Alice, a woman whose dark past leads her to invent a life hermetically sealed off from the world which so revolts her. The caricatured creatures surrounding Alice serve to heighten her dignity and alienation, yet there is nothing pathetic in her ramblings and nothing lacking in the world she has made for herself. A superb book - funny, intelligent, knowledgeable and genuinely witty. (Kirkus UK)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
PLEASE READ THIS BOOK ! It is superbly written, and it is also very very funny, a point not brought out by the reviews I have read. I have never laughed so much, and I do not normally find books hilarious. Don't be put off by negative reviews. This is a treasure of a book. Humour is an individual taste, and there may be someone out there who fails to enjoy this book. He or she will be the loser. It is a serious novel, too; there are many truths and perceptions in the flow of satire on the worthy citizens that Alice comes into contact with. One example of its wit: one of Alice's betes noir, all swathed in tartan rugs and veils for an outing in a 19th century automobile, is said to look like a "kidnapped Scottish beekeeper. "
Don't hesitate ! Read it ! Beg or borrow it ! Buy it ! Encourage the author to hurry to the publishers with the next two books; the wait will be agony, but I'll read it again whilst I'm waiting.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have now finished Pinkerton's Sister - but it has by no means finished with me! It's clearly one of those books which stay with one, long after reading. Alice has stayed in my mind as a personality I had met and cared about, and wanted to meet again. She didn't disappoint me, though I ached for her as well as continuing to delight in her ability to destroy the pomposity of her society in a few(?) well-chosen words and images. The description of the attack on Michaelangelo's David ( and his response) had me almost in tears with laughter. In fact, I don't remember when I last read a book that caused me to laugh out loud so much. Nearly 800 pages of her subversive humour was a joy. The literary references, the wordplay (I have a friend for whom a pun-box would be a good idea!), Alice's precision about punctuation, which puts Lynn Truss in the shade....she's a treasure. Mind you, I'm not sure I would like to meet her in real life: there are hints of the Jane Austen we see in the letters, where the caustic comments make one catch one's breath. It's not hard to see why the people she had to live among found her difficult!
I read only the first couple of pages of Part 3, and I was tense with anxiety for her, as the shadows drew round her. The change of mood is impressive, - and I almost wept for her and Annie, as I read the Pass the Parcel sections, while still shaking with laughter at the Celestial City. The way in which horror is sketched in, rather than being described in sordid detail, as is currently fashionable, is, I find, so much more powerful. However, I did not react against the gory detail of the description of the death of her father, as that, I could quite believe, was how she would have reacted, and consequently I did, too. The picture of that society which emerges from Alice's comments is fascinating. No wonder she escapes into literature - and yet it's not an escape, is it? Her reading has sharpened her mind and her ability to see through the hypocrisy. . The minor characters, sometimes only sketched in as Alice observes them, are in fact very convincing even when almost caricature (the dentist!), and the interplay of relationships within the various groups, both Alice's friends and the Comstock acolytes is very convincing
Part one could almost stand alone as a satirical portrait of any self-satisfied, self-righteous, prudish society. The whole is both immensely humorous, and immensely thought-provoking.
I read only the first couple of pages of Part 3, and I was tense with anxiety for her, as the shadows drew round her. The change of mood is impressive, - and I almost wept for her and Annie, as I read the Pass the Parcel sections, while still shaking with laughter at the Celestial City. The way in which horror is sketched in, rather than being described in sordid detail, as is currently fashionable, is, I find, so much more powerful. However, I did not react against the gory detail of the description of the death of her father, as that, I could quite believe, was how she would have reacted, and consequently I did, too. The picture of that society which emerges from Alice's comments is fascinating. No wonder she escapes into literature - and yet it's not an escape, is it? Her reading has sharpened her mind and her ability to see through the hypocrisy. . The minor characters, sometimes only sketched in as Alice observes them, are in fact very convincing even when almost caricature (the dentist!), and the interplay of relationships within the various groups, both Alice's friends and the Comstock acolytes is very convincing
Part one could almost stand alone as a satirical portrait of any self-satisfied, self-righteous, prudish society. The whole is both immensely humorous, and immensely thought-provoking.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a novel of startling originality, totally unlike anything I've ever read before.
It tells the life in a day of 35 year old Alice Pinkerton, the supposed sister of the Ben Pinkerton in 'Madame Butterfly', and is set in New York at the turn of the last century.
Alice, ostensibly mad in an attic, is actually very well-read and intelligent. In addition to viewing her life in terms of the novels and the poetry she has read, (this book is frighteningly literate, making you wish you had read more yourself) she takes off in surreal flights of fancy when contemplating the grotesque characters amomgst whom she finds herself: Mrs. Albert Comstock, who is the big fish in the small pond of Longfellow Park.'If she'd been on the menu at the feeding of the five thousand they wouldn't have needed the second fish and the five loaves would have been entirely surplus to requirements' and so on and so on. And you'll certainly never look at Michelangelo's 'David' in the same way again.
Thiis book is a real page-turner, Peter Rushforth clearly had a whale of a time writing it. It is laugh-aloud funny, moving, even grim at times.
It is full of fun with words: puns, alliteration, onomatopoeia, joy in the sounds of words:'She scuttled then she skittled then she broke a leg'.
One could quote from every page.
This seems to me to be a great book, even a work of genius, densely textured, multi-layered, where every word counts. It is not a book to be taken up to skim for an odd five minutes, it requires to be read carefully and attentively, but the rewards are immense.
It should qualify for one of the major literary prizes since it was published just too late to make the Booker long list.
It is a wonderful achievement.
``````````````````````````````````````````````````` ,
It tells the life in a day of 35 year old Alice Pinkerton, the supposed sister of the Ben Pinkerton in 'Madame Butterfly', and is set in New York at the turn of the last century.
Alice, ostensibly mad in an attic, is actually very well-read and intelligent. In addition to viewing her life in terms of the novels and the poetry she has read, (this book is frighteningly literate, making you wish you had read more yourself) she takes off in surreal flights of fancy when contemplating the grotesque characters amomgst whom she finds herself: Mrs. Albert Comstock, who is the big fish in the small pond of Longfellow Park.'If she'd been on the menu at the feeding of the five thousand they wouldn't have needed the second fish and the five loaves would have been entirely surplus to requirements' and so on and so on. And you'll certainly never look at Michelangelo's 'David' in the same way again.
Thiis book is a real page-turner, Peter Rushforth clearly had a whale of a time writing it. It is laugh-aloud funny, moving, even grim at times.
It is full of fun with words: puns, alliteration, onomatopoeia, joy in the sounds of words:'She scuttled then she skittled then she broke a leg'.
One could quote from every page.
This seems to me to be a great book, even a work of genius, densely textured, multi-layered, where every word counts. It is not a book to be taken up to skim for an odd five minutes, it requires to be read carefully and attentively, but the rewards are immense.
It should qualify for one of the major literary prizes since it was published just too late to make the Booker long list.
It is a wonderful achievement.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Very Disappointed
I expected a lot more from this book. It is far too long and after a while it just gets boring. There is very little action and the supposed "intellectual profudity" is not as... Read more
Published 16 months ago by robertembo
Oh Dear !
The kindest thing one may say about this drivel is PRETENTIOUS RUBBISH. Life is too short to waste on reading this tripe.
Published on 23 Feb 2010 by J. E. Holmes
What Alice knew ...
Whenever Alice, the novel's protagonist, turns her acerbic wit on the stuffy philistines surrounding her, the results are simply hilarious, and I honestly consider rereading some... Read more
Published on 21 Dec 2009 by baroquemaniac
Fantastic!!
Pinkerton's sister is about Alice, a 35 year old, single woman, who is regarded as a madwoman and who has a stammer. Read more
Published on 18 Sep 2006 by kehs
Hilarious and heartbreaking
One of the funniest books I have read for a long time, this account of the life of Alice Pinkerton, (sister of Lieutenant Ben Pinkerton of Madam Butterfly,) is a very effective... Read more
Published on 16 July 2005 by Margaret J. Donaldson
Pinkerton's sister - candidate for worst book of 2004
I thought that this book was without doubt one of the worst books I have read in 2004, in fact one of the worst books I have read in a long time. Read more
Published on 20 Dec 2004 by Elaine Simpson-long
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