I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass
This is a very interesting novel, the story of the intertwined lives of two very different sisters who have so much and so little in common. I know, sounds like every pair of siblings, right? But both these characters – and the story is shared pretty equally between them, are women struggling to find their way, and find happiness pursing their own dreams.
Louisa is the older one, and starts her career as a potter, an artist working in ceramics, but questioning how strong her own desire to be an artist is. She the older, the “responsible” child. Clement, named after a southern grandmother, is the brilliant beautiful and reckless younger child. She has violently dangerous food allergies as a child, and so becomes more precious to her parents as she fights for survival. Both sisters feel this, and it becomes a sore spot between them, that Clem is the favorite. The girls don’t fight over this, it is just what it is. They don’t fight their parents, either, it’s not a standard squabbling clan novel.
Both women, in their own way, fight with life, and their role in it. Sometimes their orbits intersect, sometimes they clash, but each is a strong and successful person, Louisa as an editor and art critic, and Clem as a wildlife biologist.
Their paths are convuluted and fascinating, and it isn’t a story of jealousy or pettiness, but of two people trying to understand. You learn bits of biology here and there, which is always interesting to me, and get a clear understanding of some of the challenges wildlife biologists face, and the moral dilemnas they encounter.
All in all a fascinating book, sad in parts, but always riveting. I recommend it.