The Seven Sisters - Classic Women's Fashion & Accessories for Everyday Elegance | Perfect for Work, Parties & Special Occasions

This is a spectacular book--but it may fool you, because it is quietly spectacular.It's basically about death and rebirth--spiritual death and rebirth--but you only find this out gradually.At first it just seems the (brilliant) musings of Candida Wilton, a fiftyish woman who has been dumped by her husband (who is the head of a pricy private school) for a younger model.She uproots herself for London--penniless (or almost), friendless, jobless, childless, skill-less, and, it would seem, futureless.Almost by accident, she takes a course on Virgil, then, thanks to an unexpected windfall, retraces part of Aeneas's journey from Carthage to the Sybil at Cumae. She takes with her five other women, some new, some old, and meets the astonishing Valeria; and these become the Seven Sisters of the title.But the Seven Sisters are also a part of London she can see from her shabby apartment; and also a constellation she can see through her slightly flawed living room window.And that's the way this novel works--by connecting. Connecting the past and the present, and building the future. By connecting unlikely people and building not only friendship but character. Connecting the present day with the ancient past and forming a huge perspective on civilization.Drabble's character is a triumph. Candida writes a diary that, unwittingly, turns into a kind of poetry. Surprisingly, poetry is not so much a matter of expression as of observation.And the book is full of unexpected twists and jolts--always moving into new thematic material, just when you thought it had finished.The last (very short) part is called "A Dying Fall." This seems apt and almost anticlimactic, except that it perfectly ties off and rounds out the main theme, which is: even the most mundane things are miracles; it is only a question of jumping the fences and noticing them.