Product Description

Ruth smiles, but beneath the surface nurses a hatred as powerful as the sea, and as sharp as the coldest of blades. The object of Ruth's malevolence is her cousin, Elizabeth -- orphaned at nine months and raised by Ruth's parents as their own -- whose very presence stole Ruth's birthright as only child. From this twisted sense of betrayal grows an envy, dark as night, from which there can be but one refuge: Elizabeth's destruction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1777687 in Books
• Published on: 1993-05-29
• Released on: 1993-05-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback

From Publishers Weekly
Fans of Hart's bestselling Damage will undoubtedly flock to the bookstores to snatch up her second novel, but they may be disappointed by this one, which essentially marks her as a one-note writer. Again there is an insistent yet oblique narrative voice; this time it belongs to Ruth, who is insanely envious of her cousin/sister Elizabeth, adopted by Ruth's parents when her own family died in an accident. Calling herself a "malevolent creature," Ruth realizes that her desire to destroy kind, generous Elizabeth is the expression of a warped psyche. When she succeeds in seducing Elizabeth's husband, Sir Charles, Ruth exults in their lasciviously detailed red-hot sex, but after he repudiates her, she experiences terrible pain. The staccato sentences that successfully propelled Damage are here reduced to fragments so truncated they cry out for parody; elsewhere, Hart's prose is terminally overwrought: "Ferocity had etched something high, cold and silver onto my face." Readers will discern a pattern in Hart's plot technique: obsession leads to evil, betrayal and lust, then to painfully ironic complications and eventually to tragic, symbolic retribution. The trouble this time around is that the melodrama palls and the frisson of suspense is lacking. 100,000 first printing; BOMC alternate. (Aug.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This fascinating follow-up to Hart's astonishing debut novel, Damage ( LJ 2/15/91), focuses on the sin of envy, embodied here by the narrator, Ruth. Ruth is corrosively jealous of her orphaned cousin Elizabeth, who was raised and cherished by Ruth's parents as their own daughter. She hates the good, generous, kind Elizabeth and waits for the moment when she will be able to break her rival and take everything. Her compelling voice makes Sin as readable as Damage , but the root of her envy never seems completely believable, and the brevity of the novel works against the author's intent. Was Ruth (badly misnamed by her parents, as it turns out) born with this fatal streak of envy, or was she struck by it in the one episode from her childhood which Hart offers as explanation? Though flawed by its failure to clarify this central point, Sin remains a disturbing, provocative work, sure to be eagerly sought by readers of Damage . Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/92.
- Dean James, Houston Acad. of Medicine/Texas Medical Ctr. Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Despite the pre-pub hoopla, this severe little tale of sisterly envy isn't the equal of Hart's widely praised debut, Damage (1991)--or maybe the author's real but slender gifts are just wearing out in unintentional self-parody. Ruth and Elizabeth are cousins raised as sisters; golden Elizabeth's parents died, and she was taken into Ruth's parents' home before Ruth was ever born. Cheated of her birthright, Ruth reacts with a pathological jealousy that alternately festers and hatches malevolent plots. Her plan to betray Elizabeth (who's grown into a minor painter of skyscapes) with her attentive husband Hubert is foiled by his indifference and accidental death (he leaves behind only an asthmatic son, Stephen), but she succeeds with Elizabeth's second husband, proper, haunted Sir Charles Harding, the magnate who buys her father's publishing house--the affair commencing when Charles comes to break the news of her father's death. As this tasteful adultery progresses, though, things begin to go awry: Ruth's mathematician husband Dominick realizes what's going on and threatens to leave Ruth and their son William; Charles withdraws by turns from Ruth and from Elizabeth (making Ruth's triumph less sweet); and a long-portended, heavily symbolic catastrophe leaves Ruth defeated and embittered. These weighty developments are set forth in a style in which oracularly self-important pronouncements alternate with dialogue redolent of adult baby talk (``I have changed. For example, I mock less''). The net effect is risible, yet peculiarly powerful in its elemental conception. Hart's ludicrously factitious rhetoric may be the sign of her true vocation--her authorship of massively bestselling bad-news comic books for grown-ups. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

The complexity of badness
This is a novel that deals not just with envy. Elizabeth and Ruth are cousins, and Elizabeth gets adopted by Ruth's parents when her own parents are killed. The girls grow up as sisters, but all along Ruth develops an incredible ill for Elizabeth, even though she doesn't do anything to provoke that resentment. Ruth makes it her life's mission to destroy Elizabeth. Her dream is to see her in pain, suffering and humiliated. She resorts to extreme manipulations and convoluted schemes to achieve that purpose.

Ruth is an amazing character, who personifies badness in a thought-provoking way. Her selfishness, envy and greed are almost incomprehensible. How can a human being harbor such hate for someone who has never done anything wrong? This novel made me think and think about the issue. Is it possible that people are born bad? So many times i've heard that we are all born good, and it's circumstances that make us bad. Did Ruth turn bad when she saw her parents combing Elizabeth's hair? Was that the moment when Ruth became jealous of her cousin? What happened in subsequent years, how did that badness grow?

Almost as amazing are Elizabeth's reactions to her sister's attacks. As evil as Ruth is, so is Elizabeth gracious and forgiving. Elizabeth summarizes her philosophy of life during their final meeting, a cathartic episode for Ruth, who is deeply changed after that.

A fascinating, disturbing novel that i highly recommend.

Captivating and wonderfully written
Josephine Hart has a superb way with words. As a novelist, her writing is almost poetic; she can say in one paragraph, what takes Pat Conroy several pages. This novel, her second, is deeply psychological, mostly taking place in the mind of the main character. Unlike her first novel, Damage, it should not ever be made into a film. The book is short. I enjoyed it immensely.

Hypnotic and Evil
She wraps her finger around you and entices you to enter her world. Ms. Hart has delivered yet another spellbinding novel. This book puts a spin on the typical good vs. evil. It takes you far into the villian's mind, her thoughts, her reasoning and makes you understand her hate, and recognize your own. Bravo for Joesphine Hart! Her fans await her next masterpiece...