During the reign of the Queen of Persia Book

This book is written in first person plural, from the point of view of 4 cousins, 2 sets of sisters who are very close in age. They are telling the story of their family, as they see it, and from family stories handed down from Gram and her five daughters. At any given time any one of the daughters may be living in Gram's huge house with 9 bedrooms, set on lots of land also owned by Gram. If this sounds like a nice family saga, think again.

Gram is a crusty old woman who cusses like a sailor, hates and resents her husband of 50 years (with some reason), wishes her kids and grandkids would all just leave her alone, and goes out every night to play bingo and bet on the horses. I liked her a lot. She had spirit.
The five sisters are very close, as are the four cousins. It is very much a matriarchal society, and the men in their lives either have to give up and give in, or go away. Gram did give birth to two sons, but they died right away, so they never had to be considered. The young girls have the freedom of the huge farm they live on, the nearby small town, and the relative safety of the 1950's. Through their eyes and ears we learn about the secrets and resentments, loves and lives, and whys and wherefores of Gram and her daughters.

I absolutely loved this book. I have seen it on all sorts of "must read" lists, and looked for it a long time before finally finding a mass market paperback copy at a used book sale. It was considered one of the best books published in 1983, but has been largely overlooked since then. And it was a first novel. I understand that NYRB has recently brought it back into print. Good for them. The writing is superb, the characters wonderful, (well, the women anyway), and the unusual narration of the cousins makes you feel like a fly on the wall of a big house with a lot of living going on inside.