The Flattery sisters, four brilliant and very different girls raised in a small town south of Dublin, were plunged prematurely into adulthood when their parents died in a tragic accident. Now, in their thirties--each unmarried, each holding a PhD--they are striving to make an impact on an increasingly volatile world. The four lead disparate, distanced lives, from classrooms in Connecticut to fancy catering gigs in London's Notting Hill, until one day their oldest sister, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the earth's future, abruptly vanishes from her home. Together for the first time in years, the Flatterys descend on the Irish countryside in search of a sister who doesn't actually want to be found. Sheltered in a derelict rural bungalow, coaxed along by the colorful denizens of a local pub, they reach into their common past, confronting both old wounds and a desperately uncertain future.
Exuberant ... Hughes’s prose is like a virtuosic jazz number — loose, free and surprising. Despite the boundless spirit of the narrative, her authorial command rarely wavers ... A funny novel. Wit and humor percolate, like a simmering pot, throughout the scenes. On the sentence level, rhythm and cadence propel Hughes’s effortless prose ... A bold, beautiful, complex novel, and I can’t wait to read what Hughes writes next. She, too, is an unstoppable force.
Hughes switches to a playscript format, but even so, as the narrative is overtaken by sisterly squabbling, a kind of merry chaos overwhelms what originally seemed like a novel of ideas ... Concerned with the duties of caring for the planet and one’s loved ones. The fact that these responsibilities are often in conflict makes this lively novel’s sense of confusion feel well-earned.
Despite some head-scratching narrative slowdowns, The Alternatives rarely fails to impress and, frequently, even to wow ... The Alternatives contains multitudes. Its mysteries and complexities reward a second reading. Its weaknesses render it human. The book's ending is a stunner. And Olwen, Maeve, Nell and Rhona make it unforgettable.
