Daughters is a well told story about a dysfunctional family. As far as the reader can tell, putting everything together, Ingrid Olssen never wanted her two daughters. Lots of evidence supporting this comes through in this story that takes place two years after Ingrid’s death but involves a lot of stories from many perspectives about Ingrid in the past. There are two daughters: Nora was born seven years after Matilda (Mattie). Mattie got pregnant at 15, the father being her high school boyfriend Gus. Ingrid’s fury drove Mattie away to raise her daughter Beanie, first living with and then coparenting with Gus.
Ingrid and her sister Karo were literally the dirt poor daughters of a nasty Norwegian pig farmer, almost a metaphor for how low one’s roots can be short of living unhoused. As a teenager, Ingrid ran off to London and apprenticed herself to a famous British painter. Ingrid soonevolved into a world famous painter whose work rose to high acclaim, unimaginable value and was rarely sold or exhibited anywhere. Now, Ingrid and Nora are grown and Beanie is a teenager. The sisters are both the daughters in the novel but also the daughters in an Ingrid Olssen painting that she painted when they were young, making them look a bit monstrous. Ingrid painted herself in like photoshopping or photobombing the painting of her two girls.
The story evolves in part through narratives from Mattie and in part from a biography by a man who had written prior articles on Ingrid and interviewed her a few times. Mattie is involved with him. (Having read the audio book, I’m sorry that his name escapes me…) They seem to be getting serious, although she has not let him meet Beanie. Mattie and Nora are estranged. Nora is in graduate school in art. Her work is presently performative, but I’m not telling more. Beanie talks to Nora on the phone a fair amount. They seem close.
The story of what led to the sisters’ estrangement partly largely involves all the times Nora, tried to kill herself, but lived. When Ingrid died two years ago, the daughters both with her, she told them to burn all her paintings. She left half of them to each daughter and their halves are together in a storage locker. Many are self portraits, often nudes. There is much interest in them.
The daughters have the same father, Ingrid’s husband, who left but remained a visitor to London “with benefits,” thus producing Nora. They eventually divorced and he remarried. He’s a well known actor in the USA. His relationship with his daughters is almost that of a visitor who drops by and pats them on the head very, very occasionally, although when she had a breakdown while in school in California, Nora stayed with him for awhile.
In the course of the story, a huge dispute arises between Mattie and Karo, who has been pushing to exhibit the paintings Ingrid told them to burn. Nora, as the advance blurb of the book notes, has a serious mental health crises that brings the sisters together. She cannot live alone for the time being. Meanwhile, Karo finagles a way to show a huge amount of Ingrid’s work in California, shiipping it off to California in a huge betrayal. Ingrid, Nora and Beanie head to the USA from London to try to stop the show. In the course of this, they have quite an adventure, renting a camper for a road trip from Arizona to California. Along the way, their relationship evolves as little by little Mattie owns ways she hurt Nora and Nora comes to connect with Mattie as a human being.
Capes is a truly amazing writer, capturing the experiences that shaped the sisters in their chaotic childhood and different trajectories. It is not a happy book but it is a lovely book. Sometimes, it is a very warm book. Beanie is important and is, of course, another daughter here. Often Capes opens to us the way anyone might think about parenting a teenager and thinking how they used to connect and wondering why that changes. The book has funny moments, especially on the road trip. And it has many moving moments. If the ending is not the one I would have initially preferred, I came to really admire the choice made. it was authentic and moving.
The narrators for the audiobook, Ryan Laughton and Amber Gadd were excellent. I highly recommend this novel. I think about it quite often and recommended it to an artist friend recently. It comes out May 6, 2025. So look for it!
They Called me Bookworm 