Family

About this book

Meet the eccentric, eclectic family members of seventeen of America's finest writers in this dazzling, deeply moving collection of memoirs. Take advice from Alice Hoffman's wise grandmother, Lillie Lulkin. Keep watch over lone children with Brent Staples. Share with Bob Shacochis and his wife the heartbreaking sadness of two people longing to have a child. You can also listen in as Chang-rae Lee and his mother speak their own language; carefully contemplate life through the eyes of Whitney Otto's beloved, irascible cat; discover if Marion Winik is really, truly related to either Charlie Chaplin or Jann Wenner; and bar-hop with a five-year-old Stuart Dybek and his Polish grandfather. In joining this literary reunion, be prepared to discover your own sense of family history. Whether considering relations by blood, by marriage, by choice, or by chance, each writer here has something to share: skeletons, desires, sorrows, and joys. And in this Family, you will find that the pleasure of reading is much more than relative.