I'm still away from home. Ten days and counting. In addition to
My Life as a Fake, which I was already reading when I left, I brought five books with me (three of these were individual copies of the books in Tove Ditlevsen's Copenhagen Trilogy, which are tiny books on their own and so I sort of think of them as three books, but I also sort of think of them as one book). Unusually for me, I have not yet visited a bookstore on this trip, so I'm devoting my energies to what I brought with me. I remember reading about or hearing about
My Sister, the Serial Killer a couple years ago when it came out and I got a copy from PaperbackSwap several months ago. It sort of hovered at the edge of my mental to-read list until I was packing for this trip and without too much premeditation decided to throw it in my bag. I think this is something I should do more often: spend less time thinking about what to read and just read something. (I mean, I do read a lot -- it's not like I'm seriously interrupting my own reading time while I deliberate about what to read, but I do maybe think a little too hard about what I should be reading.) I still had a very small amount of deliberation: should I read this, the other non-Ditlevsen book I brought, or continue with Ditlevsen straight through. (I finished
Childhood two days ago, but am waiting until I've read all three to write about them.) But I picked up
My Sister, the Serial Killer after finishing with work yesterday, sat down on the couch, and promptly read more than 60 pages. I finished it after work today; I read the whole book in two sittings.
Set in Lagos, the narrator is Korede, a clean-freak nurse. When the book opens, her younger, prettier sister has just killed a man -- and not for the first time. Korede is called upon to take charge and clean up the mess, and this, we learn, has been the dynamic between the sisters throughout their lives. The story proceeds in narrative vignettes mostly in the present, but with occasional glimpses of their past life when their abusive father was still alive. Things become complicated when Korede's sister starts a relationship with a doctor from Korede's hospital, whom she also has feelings for. The book takes some unexpected turns, and I found myself surprised by Korede's choices as the drama played out. This was a fun, if dark, read.
