Quindlen shows shallowness of fame

“Rise and Shine: A Novel”

by Anna Quindlen (Random House, 288 pages, $24.95)

Families shape our first images of ourselves: the athlete, the intellect, the shy one, the goofball.

Usually, the roles are transformed by events and adulthood. We shed them, mostly, and move on. But sometimes they become calcified, as confining as straitjackets, stunting growth and distorting our views of ourselves.

Anna Quindlen’s newest novel tells the absorbing story of two sisters, one a social worker in the Bronx, the other a morning talk show host with Katie Couric-like fame. Bonded as children by the trauma of losing both parents in a car accident, their long-established big-sis, little-sis personas have become increasingly ill-fitting as they reach middle age.

Then the older sister, Meghan Fitzmaurice, demolishes her career on the air in one breathtaking moment, uttering an ill-timed remark into a still-open mike. Toppled from her pedestal, Meghan decamps to a remote spot in Jamaica, leaving little sister Bridget to handle the wave of public and private fallout.

Quindlen doesn’t miss a chance to dissect America’s endless appetite for celebrity gossip. “Rise and Shine” explores the negatives and positives of embracing that culture, and she parcels out responsibility to everyone involved.

Quindlen doesn’t condemn the overnight creation of fame in today’s society. She sees it instead as the shallow thing it often is: tenuous, without substance or worth, but not inherently evil on its own. Mostly, she concentrates on trying to answer the question of how people handle fame and why they crave it.

If there’s a weakness in “Rise and Shine,” it’s the predictability of the crisis that brings the sisters together. The most blameless person in the book is the one who pays the greatest price, and that development feels a little disappointing.

But there is no neat ending for Bridget and Meghan, and Quindlen has a few more twists to spring. The topic she tackles in this novel feels fresh and timely, and she makes her point beautifully: Fame and wealth can be great, but in the end, family is what it’s all about.