Forever Sisters

Estranged from her own sibling, editor O'Keefe compiled this anthology of fiction and memoir out of what she calls ""sister hunger."" Starting with Whitney Otto's ""Seven Sisters,"" a kind of list of terms defining sisterhood, O'Keefe establishes her theme as a dynamic relation encompassing much beyond blood ties. The permutations, from biological to religious, from sister-in-law to sorority sister, are explored by 18 women writers, in pieces that at times seem to cross the lines between fiction, essay and memoir, and often vibrate delightfully against one another. Rita Dove's poetic vignettes about a mother and her daughters in an inventive post-Elizabethan setting segues into Marly Swick's story of a newly single mother taking her teenaged daughters to a Beatles concert in 1966. Lolita Files's flighty ""sistah"" story of lifelong friends contrasts nicely with Alice Walker's poignant tale of an urbane woman who drips with contempt as she visits her simple country sister. Complex ethnic ties are illuminated as Paullina Simon recounts her displacement, at age 14, within her Soviet immigrant family through the arrival of a baby sister. Marilyn French presents two sensitive and estranged sisters; Joy Fielding tells a wry tale of siblings reunited via a TV talk show. Standouts include Amy Bloom's ""Silver Water,"" a bittersweet story of a sister's lifelong clinical psychosis; Caroline Leavitt's heartfelt coming-of-age love triangle; and Susan Palwick's oddball ""GI Jesus,"" in which a miracle saves a friend's sister when the narrator sees Jesus on a fluoroscope. O'Keefe has keenly arranged prize-winning talent and excellent new voices to illuminate the emotional range inherent in an absorbing subject. (Feb.)