The True and Splendid History of the Harristown Sisters

June 9, 2014
Lovric’s inventive fifth novel (after The Book of Human Skin) follows seven Irish sisters on a journey sparked by an improbable nationwide fascination with their hair. The fatherless Swiney girls live in famine-struck County Kildare in 1865. Desperate, they take to the stage under the name “The Swiney Godivas,” ending each performance by letting down their ankle-length tresses. Soon a doll maker senses the potential for profit in their “follicular attractions.” He persuades them to move to Dublin, where they become the latest sensation and adjust to affluence. Their namesake dolls and Swiney Godiva hair products rake in cash, but happiness proves more elusive. Darcy, the harsh and greedy eldest sister, keeps the others short of both pocket money and freedom. Heartbreak, deception, a muckraking journalist, and the public’s fickle taste all sabotage their success. Momentum falters midway though due to an overabundance of exposition, while a section set in Venice never quite convinces despite its precision of detail. Still, the book’s rollicking, earthy voice evokes 19th-century Ireland with gusto, and Lovric brings the sisters and their tangled relationships to life as they come full circle to confront the poverty and losses from their past.

June 15, 2014
The Seven Swiney Sisters of Harristown, Ireland, thrillingly rise from starvation to stardom. Raised on barely boiled potatoes and tales of their sailor father-whose unpredictable nocturnal visits are witnessed only by their mother, whom they do not entirely believe-the Swiney girls are blessed with fantastic rivers of hair, cascading below their knees and ranging in color from honey gold to copper red to the deepest black. They divide themselves into two tribes, each headed by one of the incessantly squabbling twins, Berenice and Enda. Redheaded, wry (and increasingly suspicious) Manticory, who narrates the saga, sides with Enda; the eldest sister, raven-tressed Darcy, is far too busy bullying everyone to join either tribe. After Manticory is nearly assaulted by a hair-obsessed maniac, Darcy conceives a plan to free the girls from poverty: The sisters devise a vaudeville show (using cleverly penned scripts by Manticory) filled with maudlin songs and hair-oriented skits. The finale features the sisters simply letting down their prodigious locks, to the delight of hair fetishists, hair-remedy quacks and neglected housewives. Under Darcy's domineering supervision, the show is wildly successful. Soon enough, though, unscrupulous men manage to manipulate the young women financially and romantically. As if avoiding scandals and negotiating the perils of notoriety weren't enough, Manticory begins to have doubts about the products they hawk, Darcy's fiscal shenanigans and the mysterious small grave in the backyard of their Harristown home. Based on the true story of the Sutherland Sisters (whose own celebrity crashed after lavish spending sprees), Lovric's (Book of Human Skin, 2011, etc.) tale is lush with delightful Irish rhythms and memorable characters, including Darcy's childhood nemesis, Eileen O'Reilly, who longs to be part of the raucous Swiney clan but must settle for elaborate verbal combat.A dazzling, sometimes-lurid yet always lively adventure, indeed.

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January 1, 2014

Long hair, musical fame, and maniacal fans were a part of show business even in the 19th century, according to this unusual novel about the fictional careers of seven Irish sisters born into abject poverty during the Irish Potato Famine in 1845. The Swiney sisters share one major asset: the ability to grow yards of gorgeous hair. Hues range from evil sister Darcy's coal-black curls to Oona's blonde tresses; Manticory, the story's narrator and writer of the sisters' ballads and plays, is a redhead. In their act's stunning finale, the sisters turn their backs on the audience and let down their voluminous hair. A set of unscrupulous managers and other male hangers-on exploit the sisters' notoriety by purveying a line of porcelain dolls and expensive but worthless hair-care products. In Dublin, the girls become prisoners of their fame, living in fear of being attacked and scalped by fanatics. They end up ensconced in Venice, where their fortune fritters away--and that's just the start of the intrigue. VERDICT While the novel has some factual basis--an afterword recounts the author's research on the Victorian hair fetish--the plot twists are bizarre, almost mythic in tone. For sophisticated readers.--Reba Leiding, formerly with James Madison Univ. Lib., Harrisonburg, VA

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2014
Seven sisters with luxuriant hair of varying colors and textures take the post-famine Ireland stage by storm with their song-and-dance act. Capitalizing on the Victorian cult of beauty's attendant hair fetish, the Swiney sisters, with personalities as unique as the abundant locks that adorn their heads, conclude their act by unpinning their cascading, floor-length tresses. Before long, their hair proves to be more of a curse than a blessing as they are subjected to obsession and exploitation by their fans, their managers, and, sadly, one of their own. Narrated by middle sister Manticory, their collective story stretches from Dublin to Venice, where they eventually escape, at quite a high cost, the burdens thrust upon them by fame, notoriety, and a touch of madness. Foreboding dark and melancholy overtones mirror the tenor of the times and foreshadow the inherent sorrow of the tale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)