The Seven Sisters
Margaret Drabble
(Sr. Associate Reviewer - Dr. Alma Bond)
2002 Harcourt, Inc.
ISBN: 0151007403
Late-middle-aged, Candida Wilton, has been recently dumped by her husband, become estranged from her daughters, with no skills or prospects.
Candida Wilton moves to a shabby, unsafe section of London & begins to study The Aeneid at an adult education center. When it is replaced by a Health Club, Candida joins. When an unexpected pension comes her way, she uses it to take a trip to Tunis & Naples to follow in Aeneas's footsteps, under the guidance of Mrs. Jerrold, teacher of the defunct Aeneid class. Accompanying them are five other women. When Candida is asked “What is the point of us?” She replies, “The solution to the problem is death.”.
Sr. Associate Reviewer Dr. Alma Bond writes:
Candida Wilton is a woman fast approaching the Big 50, who has been rejected by her husband for a younger woman, & her children have become strangers. Since she has never worked, & has no commercial skills, she lives on the slim bounty she collects from her ex. She moves to a two-room walk-up apartment in a desolate, crime-ridden neighborhood, a locale that seems to reflect her image of herself. Depressed & emotionally bankrupt, she spends most of her time gazing out the window at the interesting view of London, & walking by the filthy canal, where she joins “the other no-hopers, killing time before time kills them” (p. 140).
To the delight of this Reader, the until-now passive woman joins a class on Virgil at an adult education center up the street. It changes her life. When the center is replaced by a Health Club, Candida takes the unlikely step of joining it. The first third of the book largely consists of Candida's bitter & often humorous observations of the status-seeking, aging Health Club members.
As Candida says, “Activity attracts activity” (p. 63). When a windfall pension falls her way, the seemingly bankrupt woman designs a unique plan to follow in Aeneis' footsteps on his trip to Tunis & Naples, which she describes in the second part of the book. One by one, she adds new members to her group of fellow voyagers, with Mrs. Jerrold, the elderly teacher of the Aeneid class, as its leader. Other participants include Julia Jordan, Candida's former school chum, who is now a celebrated writer of diminishing popularity. Candida feels sorry for Julia, saying that she “has outlived her looks, her popularity, and her fame” (p. 94). Another voyager is the cheerfully hedonistic Cynthia, who is always called Mrs. Barkley rather than Cynthia, “because of the air of eccentric and emphatic propriety which she carries with her” (p. 116). Mrs. Barkley is married to a wealthy gay art-dealer. Of all the group members, the fat, loathsome Sally Hepburn, who “doesn't nibble,” but “eats like a pig” is the most disagreeable to Candida, who complains that Sally “devours and insults my food simultaneously”(p. 72).
The sixth person to join the group is Anaïs Al-Sayyab, from the Virgil class & the Health Club. She is a striking woman, as exotic as her name. Dark-haired & brown-complexioned, she dresses in the gaudiest of costumes. Even her bathing suit is striped & splashed in mango & canary. She “works in television,” although no one is exactly sure of what she does there. Candida is pleased to have Anaïs for a friend, & says that she “summons up another self for me. She has that power.”
The seventh member of the party is the tour guide Valeria, who is introduced late in the book. An extremely tall, noble-looking Italian woman with some Ethiopian blood, she looks a little like a priestess. She is a lady if ever there was one, & is immediately accepted as a social equal. In fact, everybody instantly falls in love with her. Valeria is an insightful woman. By the time the group reaches their first destination, she has correctly identified Sally as a trouble-maker, Candida as a peacemaker, Cynthia as sociable spirit who is great in a crisis, & Mrs. Jerrold as a tough old bird who despite her advanced age never complains. The only member she cannot classify is Anaïs, as she has never met anyone like her on any of her tours. But she likes her looks.
Drabble makes captivating little comments about people & life throughout the book. For instance, in describing the talkative social worker Sally Hepburn, the writer says that Sally elicits information from her clients not by inspiring them to speak, but by never stopping talking. “People tell her their secrets in order to shut her up” (p. 40). In speaking of her daughters, Candida laments on how much they have changed since their childhood. “There is no way back to the shapeless tumble of the small nest of hopeful and unfinished people that they once were...The cards cannot be put back in the pack” (p. 48).
In comparing her aging self with that of an earlier time, the heroine says she used to be more concerned with possessions than she is now. “There was more to look forward to, but less to possess. It's the other way around now” (p 86). In talking about her personal trainer at the Health Club, Candida muses, “Training for what, I sometimes wonder. It's a bit late for me to train for anything...At my age, you don't have aims. You run in order to stand still”(p. 130). “We are of the third age,” she says. “Our dependents have died or matured. For good and ill, we are free (p. 148).” She believes that the human body wasn't designed to live as long as we do these days. But “the ingenuity of the human mind and spirit are the cause of this longevity, and they will find their own solution to its problems (p. 207).” She quips that in old age knitting is better than sex, as it keeps arthritis at bay & wards off embarrassing social exposure.
Making & carrying out the plans for her unique trip changes Candida, so that she now feels more sure of herself. She seems to have turned into somebody else, a less docile person. She no longer has to pretend to be stupid, & can use long words & make classical allusions, without being afraid that some semi-educated fool will call her a pedant. She is able to reconcile somewhat with her daughters, & says that in contrast to her earlier flirtation with death, she is now too happy to die. Whereas Sally could manipulate her at the beginning of the book, Candida has learned to hold her own. Even her physical appearance has changed. Her hair is of a different shape & less wispy, & she has had her teeth repaired. The other characters change, too, along with Candida. Julia becomes warmer, more human, & less odd in her late middle age, & even the odious Sally Hepburn proves remarkably helpful & supportive in a crisis.
Drabble excels more in character development than in telling a story, which in this book is rather thin & can be stated in a single line, i.e. Candida Wilton finds her way back to life by following in Aeneas's footsteps. What I enjoyed most in The Seven Sisters are the descriptions of the “sisters” & Drabble's droll way of dropping little seeds of humor & idiosyncratic observations throughout the book.
I personally disliked the trick the author uses in Part Three, in which her readers are told that the heroine has died. I was shocked at its suddenness. Later we are told that her “death” is simply part of a story that Candida has written. In my opinion, Drabble is not playing fair with her readers here. It is like saying at the end of a long story, “It was only a dream.” I also found the heroine's constant self-put-downs a bit irritating. But despite these minor flaws, Margaret Drabble is a wonderful writer deserving of her decades-long popularity.
The Seven Sisters is a fascinating book, which I highly recommend to those who like a delightful peek into the workings of the mind of a great novelist.
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