(originally posted on April 15, 2009)
Words cannot express my joy at a new novel by Maggie Estep, who writes wonderfully warped, weird, off-kilter characters like few authors can. Moving from Queens to an upstate New York town resembling Woodstock, from race tracks to dog parks, Estep looks at the ways in which half-sisters bond with each other, with their shared mother, with their separate and shared demons and with the menangerie of animals and humans they will develop emotional attachments of all hues to. I wouldn't call ALICE FANTASTIC a heartwarming family drama - I suspect Estep would recoil at such a phrase - but a memorable, funny family kaleidescope ought to work.
