Between Sisters

With powerful prose, Vida (Goodbye, Saigon) charts the legacy of abuse perpetrated by a truly monstrous man against his wife and two daughters. In the book's first section, set in Southern California in 1965, eight-year-old Lela, the central character, endures numerous horrors. First her older sister, 18-year-old Jolene, puts an end to their vicious, deranged father's ongoing sexual molestation by having him arrested. Since her mother is incompetent, Lela spends time at a nightmarish foster-care facility before she is returned home. While out on bail, her father kills Lela's mother, kidnaps her and molests her before the authorities track him down. Though protective Jolene attempts to become Lela's legal guardian, Lela is instead adopted by a loving family and separated from her sister. In the book's second section, set in 1993, Lela is a high-end real estate agent-and she's forgotten Jolene, having repressed all memory of the first eight years of her life. In an improbable plot turn, a man named Ross MacGowan shows up and convinces her to travel with him to Northern California to offer unspecified help to a woman he says is her sister. Once there, Ross kidnaps Jolene's neglected young daughter, Sandy (whom he fathered), because Jolene is a junkie. Ross then leaves Sandy in Lela's care. Ultimately, the sisters confront each other and their shared past face-to-face. Though the plot is a bit high-strung and sometimes less than credible, Vida holds it together with solid dialogue and an ending that offers realistic hope for the two scarred sisters. (Mar.)