Amazon.com Review
Lorna is good, Lonnie is bad. In the Persons family, these are the roles of the two daughters--equally troubled but unequally equipped to handle the absurdities of everyday life. Though Lonnie is the "officially crazy one" in the eyes of the world, the rest of the clan is far from normal--at least, in Lorna's eyes. Her mother is a frustrated housewife, worn down by the struggle to appease Lonnie's fits of rage and dementia, while father--exhausted by the tensions of the corporate world--has little energy left over to abide Lonnie or appreciate Lorna. Although younger than her sister, Lorna feels responsible for Lonnie's welfare, for the well-being of the entire family--a losing battle, if ever there was one.
To escape the pressures and unpleasantness of reality, Lorna relies on her imagination: She becomes a ballerina, a Broadway songstress, a Miss Universe contender. The interiors of her mind provide relief from the role she must play in her family and elsewhere: She is the good girl to everyone but herself. ("Ever since I was six and halfway aware that something about Lon didn't work right, I've been vigilant about ... counting the things I am grateful for. Or could be grateful for, if I were a good person.") The only difference between her and Lonnie, she is convinced, is that she is simply a better actress.
Lorna guides us through her real and fantasy life, from the angst of lonely adolescence to the trials of finding and losing love, and finally to the relief and reward of acceptance. Through it all, Lorna remains true to herself. And though she doesn't always think much of the person she is, she emerges from childhood a strong, passionate, and compassionate figure, realizing that--despite all the pain and guilt of growing up with a mentally ill sister, a "sister from the black lagoon"--Lonnie represents the best and worst of her own life and identity. --Leah Ball
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
A triumph of storytelling verve, dark humor and unabashed candor, Fox's autobiographical first novel (a poet, she wrote Sexy Hieroglyphics: 3,335 Do-It-Yourself Haiku) is the enthralling story of Lorna Person, daughter of a TV network accountant and a lovable 1950s mom and younger sister to Lonnie, the truly crazy child with a "frown that could launch nuclear missiles." Lonnie's mental illness is the natural disaster of the Person family, leaving every member hanging onto shreds of their selves. Or as Fox so aptly puts it, "Life with Lonnie was the only story. Until this story, which I hope to God is my own." In 23 funny, sometimes heartbreaking chapters, Fox takes Lorna (known to her sister as Oozy) from her lonely childhood in Burbank, Calif., to her roller-coaster teens in the San Fernando Valley and finally to UC-Santa Cruz, where she begins to claim her life. Many of the traumas and dramas are achingly familiar: an awkward childhood; an unwanted move; the discovery of friendship, love and sex (for this lucky girl, first love and first sex are mated); and, of course, the parents' divorce. No doubt, if that alone were Fox's material, she would have made a terrifically entertaining tale of it. But it isn't. What shadows this story is the crazy, terrorizing sister who dresses like a boy, wails like a bobcat and says, only too perceptively, "home sour home." As much as Lonnie torments her, Lorna does love her sister, trying always to protect her?from taunts and rocks and the knowledge that her brain works differently. And that is where the tension lies: How will Lonnie's Oozy ever become Lorna? The novel's subtext is television (apt for a novel partly set in Burbank), and, like TV, the narrative is episodic. A few episodes fall flat, yet big-hearted Lorna sustains this fresh and potent tale. Author tour. (Aug.) FYI: Fox worked at Warwick's Bookstore in California and helped start their reading program. She is a writer-in-residence in L.A. schools.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
