About my sisters

“No one will ever love you like your
family!” my mother would scream at me,
when I was a little girl, and, secretly,
I'd think, How ridiculous. Now, at 47,
I know the truth of her words and would
add, as a cautionary note, “...and no
one will ever drive you as nuts as
your family.”

Ginsberg, then, takes on a big subject
in About My Sisters: family relationships.
Despite the title, she actually looks at
the complex world of both her family of
origin (the sisters of the title, a
brother, a mom and dad) as well as her
extended family (her son, along with
various boyfriends and girlfriends of
family members).

It's in the very ordinariness of the family
that the book derives its strength; by
the description of the family's day-to-day
feuds and fusses, as well as the family's
ongoing support and caring, Ginsberg reveals
the power of the family in our lives.

A reader of About My Sisters will nod as she
reads, recognizing, in the pages, her own
family chaos, her own family cohesion,
whirling and spinning,
expanding and contracting,
like the universe,
like life itself.