FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1999. All Rights Reserved
| Books by FFWD Staff The Bubble Star The Bubble Star is a very feminine book – not feminist, but feminine. The intertwining lives of three sisters make up the plot, with each woman presenting a view of the world that is partly superficial, partly spiritual, but wholly her own. There is often a preoccupation with the appearance of things. Sister Janis works in a clothing store where customers are guided to the appropriate distorting mirror to enhance the appearance of the clothing. Sister Peggy-Leigh is anorexic. Each of them reveal their secrets after a great deal of introspection, so much so that the three main characters seem detached from the real world. Imogene, musing on her own predicament, says, "[She] imagined two drugs in her body. They were professional arm wrestlers. And during the struggle, one overpowered the other. The defender of the sperm, as she called it, won. The challenger, her birth control succumbed." This unfortunate event creates a problem – not that Imogene and Benny weren't married, they were. To other people. Janis, who wonders what it would be like to be pregnant, has to face a moment of truth when her lover's wife walks into the store with a friend and she tries to eavesdrop on the conversation. Whether Peggy-Leigh recovers or dies from her anorexia is an answer best left to the reader. Even breast cancer does not go unmentioned by the pen of Lesley-Anne Bourne. The nature of the plotting of this novel, with each sister considered in sequence, creates some fracturing. The tendency of the author to present facts in multiple parentheses makes for initial heavy reading until the style becomes more familiar. The effort is well worth it; this first novel rises in intensity and quality as it proceeds. Alan Egerton Ball |
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