Sissie A Novel

Sissie describes the effect of a mother's powerful personality on her now famous children. Recalling their younger years, the story uncovers layer by layer the experiences that have come to define them. Sissie Joplin is a black American who survived the poverty of her first marriage during the Depression to remarry into prosperity. When the novel opens she is dying & her two surviving children, Ralph & Iris, are on their way home to be with her. Ralph is a successful playwright, Iris a jazz singer. In a sense their lives have fulfilled Sissie's dreams, but though their inherited ambition has carried them far, their mother has also damaged them. Ralph because she deserted him as a small child & because he bore the brunt of her rages of frustration; Iris because at an impressionable age she saw the succession of lovers Sissie brought to the house, & because she cannot be sure who her father is. Their individual problems meet in a common need to free themselves from Sissie. For both of them freedom lies in their capacity to forgive her, & the story, which reaches its climax at her deathbed, is of how far each of them succeeds.Williams, John A. is the author of 'Sissie A Novel' with ISBN 9780938410669 and ISBN 0938410660.