I remember reading this on a cozy Sunday afternoon back in the late 90s. There's so much to like about it...the old movie feel, the big band backdrop, the characters and their lives with and apart from each other, the emotions we share with each of the women we grow to care about...
It is somewhat similiar to another great and impossible-to-find novel called ALL GOOD WOMEN by Valerie Miner. Both books take place during the big band era, both give the reader endearing, fully fleshed-out characters and both wreck havoc with your heart. SWING SISTERS, though, focuses more specifically on an all-girl band and their adventures both on and off the stage.
This is what I found in my book journal, written right after I finished the book:
Every main character has serious emotional issues to work through...for some reason Roz's situation got to me the most...her story isn't just a story, but something going on inside of me. Lovey, the lead singer, leaps to the reader's reality so that you can practically hear her weave tapestries with her voice.
Various subplots come together in this amazingly touching book, but Roz's experience is what especially grabbed me.
Anyone who has ever loved someone who didn't feel the same way will feel Roz's sorrow as she tumbles into something she doesn't quite understand, but knows is all too real. Her feelings for fellow bandmate Sarah jumped off the page...Westin captures unrequited love like no other author I've read.
SWING SISTERS is the kind of thing you want to reread...the problem is I have yet to find it again. It's like an incredibly vivid, great dream you had once and want to recapture because while you loved having it, it's faded over the years.
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