Great Book--little-known
This novel has been marketed as both a "mystery" and a "memoir," and also as a soapy tale of "child prostitution."
It is really none of those things.
In tone, this book is similar to the NPR radio show "This American Life."
The author imagines (as she recounts) the life of her sister who ran away from home at 14 to be part of a nutty sex life near a US Naval base in Virginia.
Nuttiness more than crime might best describe this novel. It is actually a happy and fun book to read.. Irrepressible youth, vitality, comedy--all these things come through. Tragic and neurotic is ain't.
And it is indeed a novel--more than just an "as told to" non-fiction work.
Also the author--Maria Flook --is intentionally working out some of her own self by writing this story. Hence the title she chose: "My Sister Life."
I would place it alongside Mary Karr's "The Liar's Club" and other similar books. But there are also echoes of some of the subtler narrative strategies of Philip Roth here as well.
A book well worth your time, and money.