Book Review/Heather Seggel

Such Delightful Sisters

The International Sister Cities program originated in 1956 under President Eisenhower. He intended the bonds formed between cities to create “citizen diplomacy” and help ensure our collective peace and prosperity. Community, cultural exchange, and (hopefully) friendship.

What could possibly go wrong? A new novel has fun with the concept, and teases out some unexpected possibilities. “Sister City” (Coffeetown Press) is a novel about borders, politics, the forces that tie us together, and the ways those ties unravel. Author Ian Woollen writes with humor and compassion, even for the least among his characters, and the story bubbles along at a low, insistent simmer.

Chad and Winnie have hit the road, leaving Boston behind to embark on a new adventure in Cave City, Indiana. Winnie will be teaching while Chad—clean, sober, and newly certified—hopes to find work as an addiction counselor. On arrival, news follows: Their furniture may not be arriving soon, or ever. The complications continue without letup from that point forward.

The Sister City accord the title refers to connects Cave City and Ciudad de la Gruta, Yucatán, and must be renewed every 20 years via referendum, a quick and easy transaction. Or it would be, but for a corporate activist trying to defeat its passage. The story hops between the two cities, and they are linked by more than this diplomatic tie. Years earlier, Chad traveled through the Yucatán peninsula and his tour bus hit a young girl. An argument broke out between the bus driver and the girl’s guardian. Chad paid him off, thinking he was providing for her burial, and the trauma of that event was worth staying high to escape. This sad story does not end there, though, instead spinning out into something unexpectedly funny and touching in the present day.

As the annual Sister City soccer tournament approaches, Cave City’s Sheriff Hooker plans to upend all the harmony with some real MAGA energy, including a tiki torch rally and plans to demand “papers” from everyone in attendance. The more Chad and Winnie settle into life in Cave City, the more its link to Ciudad de la Gruta affects them.

There’s a freewheeling quality to “Sister City” that reminded me of Tom Robbins. Some situations are absurd and openly acknowledged to be so by everyone involved, while others gently shift your tolerance for absurdity over time. Ciudad de la Gruta’s mayor, known as El Plástico, works with a bodyguard type called El Drone, their identifying quirks recast as the defining attributes of luchadores. A character affectionately nicknamed Dotcom is later mistakenly re-nicknamed Wifi. There is some Spanglish and also some Klingon, but it all feels entirely real and possible, to Woollen’s credit.

There are many couples, family units, and relationship permutations threaded through the story, but one that is less directly discussed is the relationship between the people and the land they occupy. What is sisterhood to someone who has been deported without cause? Who belongs and who is a colonizer? When I looked up a translation of “la gruta” (the grotto), numerous references to miracles and Our Lady of Lourdes appeared. Pilgrims in this world may come to an abandoned drive-in movie theater instead of her shrine, but the spirit of seeking is ever-present. A Shawnee woman who becomes Chad’s friend and confidant is a reminder of the region’s first people, whose motives toward outsiders may not be what they seem.

There’s a full-circle moment close to the end of the book that leaves you marveling at how much has changed in such a short time. Chad and Winnie may be reunited with their furniture, but by the time it reappears they are vastly different people than they were when it was lost. “Sister City” is an example of fine storytelling; there’s a lot of humor and heart throughout, and its quirks never overwhelm the humanity of its characters.

A quick final note: The ISBN for “Sister City” is 978-1-60381-362-5. It’s not usually information we include with reviews, but I add it here with a reminder to please, whenever possible, patronize your local, independent bookstore. They are generally happy to order books for you, make recommendations based on your existing preferences, and they are cool places to visit. There’s more to come on this theme in an upcoming review, but Amazon hauled in $108.5 billion in the first quarter of this year while many small retailers struggled to stay afloat or sadly did not survive. It’s time to take our communities back, and that means supporting local small businesses. Do your part wherever you can.

Heather Seggel is a writer living in Northern California. Email heatherlseggel@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, July 1-15, 2021

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