Now, This Was SOME Sister Act, Girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                        Long before fiction's Hudson Sisters--Jane and Blanche--were going at each other, real live siblings Vanessa and Virginia Stephens--better known as Vanessa Bell, renowned painter, and Virginia Woolf, renowned novelist--were giving them a run for their money.

                                        But I had no idea to what degree, until I read this novel.  Though written as historical fiction, much of the key incidents did take place.  I had no idea Virginia had such nympho maniacal tendencies; I mean, to betray her sister, with that sister's husband???????  What could be more cruel?????????  And isn't that, technically speaking, incest?

                                         Virginia had problems, to be sure, going all the way back, and ending with her tragic suicide, in 1941, but this novel makes it clear that to actually live, day to day, with Virginia Woolf was to be afraid of her.

                                           Still, of all of literature's depressive female authors--the others being Sylvia Plath and Joan Didion--only Virginia Woolf rises above them, with a lyricism that transcends the despair being dealt with, somehow making it somewhat bearable.  I have read "To The Lighthouse" several times, and feel I should give her other novels a go.  I even have this bizarre idea, maybe in retirement, of reading all of her diaries!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                            But that might be pushing it. Still, "Vanessa And Her Sister" is an informative, entertaining, and, with its skillful language, a stimulating read.

                                              Let's not follow Virginia's example, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!