[2] The famous opening line of the novel warns of the bleak narrative to follow: "Neither of the Grimes sisters would have a happy life, and looking back it always seemed that the trouble began with their parents' divorce."

Emily, the younger and more intellectual and cosmopolitan of the two, seeks love in numerous disappointing affairs and short-term relationships.

Sarah, the prettier and more conventional one, marries young and bears children to an uncouth and abusive husband.

Plot: The girls’ father was a newspaper man and they inherit his talent for writing, although he separates from their vain mother early on and she brings them up in various locations in the New York suburbs.

A family of English immigrants move in upstairs and it is while walking out with their son Tony to an Easter parade that he and Sarah are photographed by a newspaper.

She enjoys parties, has a succession of interesting but unsatisfactory relationships with men, and lives a seemingly carefree life.

When their mother is found collapsed in a heat and alcohol induced stupor, and is confined to a large sprawling psychiatric hospital, Sarah summons Emily and they reminisce fondly about their father, although there is some unexpressed jealousy on Emily’s part because it is suggested Sarah was his favourite.

Later, Sarah has a stay in the same psychiatric hospital as Pooky, but is released only to die tragically from a drunken fall some time later.

Sliding further into depression, she begins to drink in the daytimes, although she makes one further futile attempt at writing, a piece about being a single unemployed woman.

Forcing herself out for a walk one day she thinks of Sarah’s son Peter, and she arranges to visit him and his young wife.

"[2] The publication of The Easter Parade marked the beginning of a relatively stable and productive period for Yates, and the book has been championed by Joan Didion,[3] David Sedaris,[4] Kurt Vonnegut, Larry McMurtry and Tao Lin, among others.