Sisters: Love and Rivalry Inside the Family and Beyond - Softcover

Fishel, Elizabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0688042279 ISBN 13: 9780688042271

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 1985

Synopsis

Insights about sisters as rivals, secret sharers, and friends are drawn from Fishel's wide reading in literature and psychology, her observations of her own relationship with her younger sister, and her interviews with sisters both famous and obscure

About this title

Synopsis

Looking at the ways a woman's life is shaped and influenced by having a sister, from earliest childhood through old age, this book explores the depth and breadth of sisters' relationships throughout the life-cycle, through closeness, distance and ambivalence, through rivalry and love. Using questionnaires and probing interviews, the author interviewed over 100 women, including well-known sisters, such as Margaret Mead, Gloria Steinem, Carly Simon, Ntozake Shange and Kate Millett. She draws on her own experience with her younger sister, and delves into the lives of the sisters she interviewed and the intimate details of their relationships. Among the many issues which are discussed are: the implications of birth order and dynamics of the family crucible; patterns of family roles, rivalries and opposites; and sisters' influences on each other's sexuality and creativity. The book deals with intense rivalry, unwavering devotion and even the shattering of sexual taboos. Elizabeth Fishel is the author of "I Swore I'd Never do That" and "The Men in Our Lives".

Edition details

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0688042279
• ISBN 13: 9780688042271
• Binding: Paperback