The overall theme is how members of a family get along together and how they handle their involvement with the men in their lives. Besides the immediate problem of getting along, there is a strong cause and effect foundation for the interaction. Being strong and making things happen is another aspect of the theme, and trying to grow up, to get through the problems of adolescence is another.

In Three Sisters the characters are very often analyzing each other. Liz, who wants to be a writer, stands back and looks at her family objectively as though they were raw material for a story. Karen is so inclined to analyze herself and her problems that her friend, Marisa, tells her to give herself Illustration for Three Sisters by Norma Fox Mazer.

Avon: New York (1986).