{"id":90635,"date":"2025-08-23T07:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T07:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/90635\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T07:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T07:08:08","slug":"sisters-sibling-rivalry-threatens-to-turn-ugly-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/90635\/","title":{"rendered":"Sisters\u2019 sibling rivalry threatens to turn ugly \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do parents have favourites? This is the loaded question Fran Littlewood asks in her second novel, The Accidental Favorite.<\/p>\n

It centres around the Fisher family \u2014 which consists of Patrick and Vivienne and their three daughters, Alex, Nancy and Eva \u2014 who have come together at a rented house outside London with their partners and children for what is supposed to be a weeklong celebration of Vivienne\u2019s 70th birthday.<\/p>\n

Following a harrowing accident during which their father has an unexpected response, the sisters begin to question both their relationships with their parents and with each other, threatening to dissolve the family\u2019s seemingly strong ties. Old rivalries and memories resurface, and what was to be a vacation quickly devolves into a mad marathon that threatens to build to a violent finish.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The Accidental Favorite<\/p>\n

Littlewood has three daughters of her own; she lives with her family in London and is the author of the bestselling Amazing Grace Adams (2023). She previously worked as a journalist.<\/p>\n

The trouble with The Accidental Favorite is that it spends too much time mired in the set-up, convincing the reader that although outwardly the sisters appear successful and happy, they\u2019re actually all miserable \u2014 and of course everyone is hiding something. <\/p>\n

After the lengthy build-up, the reveal, when it comes, seems almost anti-climactic.<\/p>\n

Told from the point of view of the women, the story flashes back and forth from the present to the sisters\u2019 childhood and beyond.<\/p>\n

Alex, the eldest, is a perfectionist in all things, but has somehow just been surprised with her third child at the age of 45 and is stalking her childhood boyfriend online.<\/p>\n

Nancy, the self-described \u201cf\u2014 up\u201d, is nonetheless a doctor, raising her daughter with her self-absorbed ex-husband.<\/p>\n

And Eva, the youngest, has made a fortune selling a board game she invented \u2014 but perhaps just made a huge mistake in her personal life.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the book is not really about whether parents have favourites \u2014 nor does it answer the question \u2014 but about truth, memories and the stories we glean from them and tell ourselves. As Vivienne asks herself, \u201cIf you pretend something long enough, does it become a truth of sorts?\u201d <\/p>\n

Littlewood is asking if we are really the sum total of our memories and seems to reply in the negative. <\/p>\n

Memories can blur and evolve over the years, and can we ever be sure things happened exactly the way we remember? As the sisters and Vivienne revisit problematic memories, they are forced to question their veracity, as well as what significance they truly hold in their current lives.<\/p>\n

The ending feels a little bit cute \u2014 \u201cwe\u2019re family and that\u2019s all that really matters\u201d \u2014 but The Accidental Favorite is still a great summer read and a reminder that if we\u2019re to move forward, some memories belong in the past because, as Littlewood writes, \u201cWhen it comes down to it, you have to decide what to hold on to and when to let go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindsay McKnight works in the arts in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do parents have favourites? This is the loaded question Fran Littlewood asks in her second novel, The Accidental…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,49,48,75],"class_list":["post-90635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}