A Proper Education for Girls

Summary (from the publisher): A dazzling debut novel, both comic and dark, about the Victorian obsession with science, inventions and experiments. Two sisters, one in England, the other married-off in India, communicate via coded messages that reveal deep secrets, and lead to adventure . . . with a twist.


Review: DiRollo's debut novel is about twin sisters Alice and Lilian who are separated for the first time when Lilian is married off to an irritating preacher who is a missionary in India. The girls were raised in a house filled to the rafters with any odd and unusual artifact or contraption their father could get his hands on. The novel is told in intervening chapters between Alice, who is at home minding her father's collection, and Lilian, who is braving the wilds of India. Used and abused by their father and pretty much every man in their life, the twins aren't afraid of using men right back to be reunited and achieve freedom.


Something about this novel, and especially Alice's story, was almost, but not quite, magical realism. The images of Alice in her parlor among the vast conservatory, getting lost among plants and her numerous elderly aunts was a little fantastical. Alice takes off in a flying machine and almost suffers through a clitoridectomy at the hands of the fanatic Dr. Cattermole. Similarly, Lilian witnesses extreme violence and random encounters with Indian royalty among her travels. 


I liked this novel okay, I just didn't really like Alice or Lilian. They seemed sort of inhuman and ruthless. I was never quite sure what exactly they wanted or where the story was going. I would have enjoyed the book more if the novel had opened before Lilian left for India so the reader could see the sisters interacting and get a better understanding of their relationship. 


Stars: 3