Bookreporter.com - THREE GIRLS AND THEIR BROTHER by Theresa Rebeck

THREE GIRLS AND THEIR BROTHER
Theresa Rebeck
Shaye Areheart Books
Fiction
ISBN: 9780307394149

“Now that it’s all over, everybody is saying it was the picture, that stupid picture was behind every disaster that would eventually befall my redheaded sisters.” So begins Theresa Rebeck’s poised fiction debut, a story of the pitfalls and pressures of modern-day celebrity. When famed literary critic Leo Heller’s beautiful granddaughters are chosen for a photo shoot for The New Yorker, no one could have known what heights (and havoc) would follow.

Daria, Polly and Amelia Heller have lived rather typical lives as young high school students in Brooklyn, NY. After the photo shoot with esteemed photographer Helmet Lang, they find themselves catapulted into the dizzying world of New York celebrity. That one seemingly benign photo crowned them the “It Girls” for the 21st century, and their lives were never the same.

The two older sisters seized upon the opportunity as a lifeline out of a dysfunctional home with little prospects. Amelia, the youngest sister at 14, is the least impressed by it all but finds herself kept out of school and in the chicest clubs, hanging out with movie stars and being offered all the excesses of adult success. And what of their poor brother, Philip? Poor unbalanced Philip finds their new life untenable. Their former beauty queen mother, so hungry for fame herself, is willing to abandon her only son in order for her girls to succeed, considering it collateral damage. After the picture comes the agent and then the lifestyle, the nightlife, the offers of acting parts and, ultimately, the inevitable downfall.

Rebeck --- known for plays such as the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Omnium Gatherum, The Scene and her recent Broadway debut, Mauritius --- has turned her keen eye to the modern-day media celebrity. Whether we want to or not, we’re all well aware of the ups and downs of the Britneys and Lindsays of our ever-present, celebrity-loving culture. Starlets and heiresses and their hijinx have bounded off the gossip pages and have become mainstream news. Try as you might to ignore it, they are everywhere. According to her publisher, Rebeck got the inspiration to write THREE GIRLS AND THEIR BROTHER after seeing a photo of the Hilton sisters. She began thinking, “What would happen if an ordinary family became the focus of a ravenous media? How would it change them?” In this, her first novel, she gets to explore the ever-fickle nature of fame and why it’s so important to people today.

THREE GIRLS AND THEIR BROTHER takes a more realistic and cautionary look at the perils of fame. It doesn’t glorify or sugarcoat the ravages of too-sudden recognition, or the celebrity we witness so often today --- the celebrity that comes with being famous for fame’s sake. Young girls with no discernable skills or talent leap off Page Six and into the newspapers and magazines with equal weight given to politicians or other newsmakers. Their one ability might just be the art of having your photo taken and often. Or releasing your so-called “private” sex tape into the right hands. Or perhaps their brushes with the law, instead of vilifying them, serve to make them even more renowned. Rebeck also examines the parents’ role in all of this. When a mom or dad is so ambitious themselves, willing to sacrifice their child’s safety or well-being in order to reach dizzying heights of fame, how can that child be expected to grow up in a well-adjusted manner? What examples are being set for them?

Told from four different points of view --- first Philip and then each of the three sisters --- Rebeck’s talent shines as she casts an acerbic eye on the capricious lifestyle the Heller family adopts, at the expense of one of their own. The reader sympathizes a little with each character, but none are truly likable, which perhaps best illustrates the author’s point: these days, ordinary people devoid of talent and who aren’t even very nice or decent become ridiculously famous for no good reason. And you can be sure that no good will come of it. But in Rebeck’s capable hands, the reader can see the harsh realities of modern-day celebrity, from a comfortable distance, as they breathe a sigh of relief that this is not their family.

--- Reviewed by Bronwyn Miller

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