Coco Mellors’ Blue Sisters
Reviewed
by
Dr.
Amrita Das,
Assistant
Professor,
St.Xavier’s
College,
Ahmedabad,
Gujarat, India.
Blue Sisters | Novel | Coco
Mellors |
Harper Collins, Great Britain, 2024
American author
Coco Mellors’ second novel Blue Sisters, delves deep into the world of
women. It demands to strip away the heavy burden of patriarchy after creating a
strong bond between sisters. She strives to demonstrate through her portrayed
characters that ‘the feeling that to be a girl with other girls was not some
weakness, as they had been told, but a power, the best and luckiest power on
earth’ (220). The world of women is compassionate. A filial relation among
women can work as a healing balm that can tenderly cure the wounds. In this
patriarchal society, where women are always said to be enemies of each other,
possessing jealousy and hatred, sisterhood creates a strong bond between women.
Their shared feelings, emotions, and tantrums without judging each other can
bring harmony and kinship. But in reality, is it really possible? Because the
world is believed to maintain the detestation and resentment between women.
Coco Mellors’ Book Blue Sisters is one of the examples, which starts
with the same loathing and animosity among sisters. But the ending culminates
with love, devotion and affection for each other.
Sisterhood or
the filial bond between women is not a new concept, though. There are a good
number of novels that portray this relationship. But highlighting this
relationship in the academic discussion concords with women’s bondage. In the
face of patriarchy, women developed strong relationships as social and
emotional support networks in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In a
society that mistreated them because of their gender identity, these
relationships—often referred to as sororal bonding—were a means of maintaining
their identity. The strong emotional attachment was seen to be at the core of
these bonds. As the women's rights movement gained momentum in the 19th and
early 20th centuries, sisterhood became more than just friendships and personal
bonds with the rise of the second wave of feminism. Women's associations and
organisations played a key role in the fight for women's suffrage, labour
rights, and educational reform. Feminists established sisterhood as a political
term after realising the importance of group action.
By this time,
sisterhood had spread beyond politics to include consciousness-raising
organisations. Now, the purpose of this relationship between women was to
create female role models and distance themselves from the male influence in
their lives. With the addition of pecuniary and activist backing, the
sisterhood's original emotional intimacy was somewhat restored.
In an effort to
improve sisterhoods' inclusivity and consideration of identity intersections,
including colour, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, etc., the third wave of
feminism emerged to rectify the flaws of the earlier movements. But this was
also the period when the phrase itself, which was primarily linked to
second-wave feminism, came under fire for its reduction of the varied
experiences of women and exclusion of males. Despite some people's disbelief in
fourth-wave feminism, sisterhood has resurfaced in popularity, but with
slightly altered definitions due to its purported origin and the growth of
social media. It now encompasses men, transgender individuals, people of
colour, and other disadvantaged groups, and it is founded on people's varied
experiences rather than their shared oppression and hardships.
Coco Mellors
creates sisterhood between blood-related sisters and also between lesbian women
with the purpose of conscious rising. The four sisters in this novel are Avery,
Bonnie, Nicky and Lucky. Among them, Nicky dies early. She was suffering from chronic
pain due to endometriosis. She lives only in memories and flashbacks of the
other three sisters. But through the life evolvement of the other three
sisters, Mellors desperately tries to raise their self-consciousness with the
intention of personal growth and maturation to re-identify themselves.
The book
revolves around twelve chapters with a prologue and epilogue. Each chapter is
named after the sisters, and among them, the oldest sister, a lawyer by
profession, is Avery. She has been married to Chiti, a therapist, for ten years
and is also a lesbian. They both develop a solid and stable partnership and
feel comfortable in their relationship, with enough space, freedom, and choice.
But after 10 years of their marriage, it breaks up as Averi cheats on her wife
with a man, Charlie, with whom she sleeps one day just to satisfy her sexual
desire. The desire Avery longs for, which Chiti fails to provide, makes Avery
seek another option. Moreover, she does
not want to have any babies in her married life with Chiti because she does not
want to hamper her career, and at the same time, she observes her mother’s poor
condition after being a mother. But she repents for her deed at last because
one day’s sexual thirst seems heavy on her heart. Charlie satisfies her desire,
but fails to comfort her mentally, which Avery needs most during her critical
time with her sisters.
Avery is a
responsible woman who, in order to protect her sisters, becomes possessive,
arrogant and selfish. At her age of thirty-three, she realises that it is necessary
and important ‘to grow into your own woman’ (180) to realise and understand the
harsh realities of patriarchy. She knows that time is more powerful than money.
She wants success in life with her profession. Like her mother, she can't limit
herself to the family only, and therefore, she does not want to have any babies
with Chiti. She believes motherhood is a tough phase, ‘becoming a mother is a
shocking thing. Like landing on the moon. Everything changes’ (220). She finds
herself in her own career.
Bonnie is the
second sister who is a boxing enthusiast, which is never supported by her
mother but always by her father. He supports and appreciates her because he
wants to have a son. Bonnie is calm and placid in nature. She loves and
understands others well. She works as the bouncer for Peachy’s, a nearby bar.
She takes care of her other little sisters, but she blames herself completely
for the death of her sister Nicky because when Nicky overdosed, she took Nicky
to the hospital and witnessed her death helplessly. Bonnie believes in God, and
she finds herself in it.
The third sister
is Nicky, who, throughout the novel, lives in memories of her sisters only.
Nicky dies early at the age of 26. She is a perfect example of a normal woman
who is soft spoken and always aspires to have her husband and babies. Shehas a
friendly nature and loves branded shopping and being with rich friends. When
she died, she was a school teacher by profession. Tune into motherhood is a
form of freedom where pain is there, but also with pleasure, Nicky used to
believe that. The death of Nicky shakes the other members of her family. The
diameter of their relationship changes, and everyone thinks themselves
responsible for this tragedy and gradually detaches themselves from each other.
The most shocking impact happens with Lucky, the last sister, and she is the jolliest
and perverted one. Lucky is addicted to smoking and alcohol, which is resulted
from her family tragedy and also her father’s gruesome brutality after
drinking. Lucky is just two years younger than Nicky, and both leave as twins.
Lucky lives a vagabond life and cuts all her family relationships after losing
her sister.
But the three
sisters meet again after one year when they receive news from their mother
about the sale of their house. Their mother wants them to come back and take
their necessary items before the house is auctioned off. Their mother is also a
victim of patriarchy who decides to sell the house to treat her husband, who is
in rehab, suffering from liver disease after an excessive amount of drinking.
She remains silent throughout her life under the strong regime of her husband
due to her inability to give birth to a son. Gradually, she starts to hate her
daughters. This detestation takes her daughters far away from her. The woman,
into her she fails to recapitulate. This hurts her the most and also makes her
sentiment towards her daughters. At the end of the novel, we find her spending
life in an upstate where she turns into a very ugly woman, cutting all the social
life.
After her last
meeting with Avery, she confesses all her lifelong pains and tantrums. She
believes that keeping herself separated from her daughters actually helps them
to grow psychologically strong and stable. She teaches Avery to believe in nothing
‘but a woman’s capacity to survive disappointment’ (212).
Thus, Mellors
tries to give a beautiful portrait of sisterhood through the three characters.
The mother-daughter relationship has also been positioned strongly here. But
the sisterly bond is highlighted more by the author. Their psychological
struggle to be a woman, their initial hatred towards each other that later
transforms into love and affection to create a strong emotional bond
eventually, is beautifully portrayed by her. Not only that, each sister, while
loving and sympathising with each other, finds their own selves as well. They
calculate the meaning and true value of self-love. As the book has discussed a
serious issue in society, this book is well intended for scholars of feminism
and women’s issues. The book is a good example of a healthy relationship between
women, which is desperately needed in today’s society in order to lessen the
patriarchy and its stronghold. Mellors has created a strong role model of the
bond through her portrayal of the three characters to bring harmony and solace.