Review of 48 CLUES INTO THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MY SISTER by Joyce Carol Oates (New Release)

 4 Stars

In April of 1991, 30-year-old Marguerite (M.) Fulmer disappears from her upper middle-class home in Aurora-on-Cayuga in the Finger Lakes region of New York State.  Twenty-two years later, her younger sister Georgene (G.), the narrator, reveals snippets of her sister’s life and the various theories developed by police, relatives, colleagues, and even a psychic:  was she abducted and murdered or did she run away for some reason?  Also revealed are G’s complicated feelings for her perfect, much-loved sister. 

The two sisters are foils.  M. was beautiful, talented, accomplished, and popular.  A sculptor, she received prestigious awards.  With her sense of style and designer clothes, hers seemed to be a glamorous life G. could never achieve.  G. is the exact opposite.  She lacks her sister’s beauty and accomplishments.  She works in a dead-end job as a postal clerk.  Because she tends to be brusque, rude, and dismissive of others, she has no friends or romantic relationships.

G.’s anger, jealousy, and resentment become increasingly obvious.  She wants what her sister had:  beauty, popularity, and success.  She feels unloved by her family and hopes for a romantic relationship.  Beneath her peevish and abrasive exterior lies a deeply unhappy, lonely, and insecure woman. 

What also becomes clear is that G. is an unreliable narrator.  For instance, at one point she says that she refused “to be envious of anyone, ever” but then later admits “All that was secret in my sister, I deeply envied, and resented.”  From the beginning she makes clear that she is not totally forthcoming:  “Note that much is hypothetical here.  Though G. may know exactly what has happened to M., G. is taking care to present ‘clues’ as they appear in sequence.”  The line between reality and imagination is often blurred.  For instance, there is one episode where G. describes taking a certain action only for the reader to learn later that she was fantasizing.  As a consequence, the reader must wonder about other scenes:  are they reality or hallucinations?

Readers should be warned that the ending is ambiguous.  Of course, this should not come as a surprise since G. states at the beginning, “So many maybes!  Yet (this is the tantalizing promise of clues!) one of these maybes however improbable and implausible is the Truth.”  G.’s last glimpse of M. is her face “in the bureau mirror reflected in the mirror on the closet door – that is, an image double mirrored.”  This suggests a distorted image and that’s really what the narration feels like:  not everything is clear. 

This is a mystery for those who like to read closely in order to figure out what happened.  I have my suspicions, but I think a second reading would be beneficial. 

Note:  I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.