REVIEW
224 pages, paperback
This hilarious family history of love, war, and sibling rivalry takes place in Runnymede, a place located "smack dab on the Mason Dixon line" with half the town in Maryland, the other half in Pennsylvania. The story of two sisters, Juts and Wheezie, and their mother Cora is told in dated chapters; those in the present tense cover a five-month period in 1980; the past tense chapters relate events that occurred between 1909 and 1961. Juts and the religious Wheezie have not stopped squabbling for seventy-five years. When Nickel, the daughter of Juts and narrator of the 1980 chapters, goes off to college, writes successful books about her family, and then - to top it all off - buys her mother a new car with some of her earnings... Well! Wheezie can barely stand it and doesn't let Juts forget for one minute that both Nickel's books and her bisexual lifestyle are completely unforgivable, unless of course Nickel might want to buy her something? Juts manages Wheezie's bitchy snoopiness by yelling out seventy-five-year-old insults: "Wheezie sucks green monkey dicks" gets rid of her in a minute; calling her a "piano fart" shuts her up instantly. Runnymede - past and present - is filled with colorful characters and lively stories. A fun, funny, and penetrating novel, Six of One sparkles with warm spirited humor and keen perceptions about women, men, war, and social status. -- Jesse Larsen from 500 Great Books by Women