The evil, narcissistic, thirty-something sisters in this story by Joy Williams act more like petulant children than adults. They have no friends and no interest in boys, have never worked, and don’t intend to. Although concerned about the health of their wealthy parents crumbling in their eyes, they heartlessly manipulate them and delight in humiliating and driving away their houseguests. After revealing a damning family secret at a cocktail party, an intuitive houseguest points out too late that the girls’ behavior is killing their mother. Themes include family dysfunction, arrested development, narcissism, evil, cruelty, death, grief.