When someone says, at a holiday dinner table, "Oh, those
Lawrence cousins lose control all the time," or the Davises always
had more talent than luck," you can be sure there's a lesson being
passed along, from one generation to another. Who tells stories to
whom and about what is never a random matter.
Our family stories have a secret power: they play a unique role
in shaping our identity and our sense of our place in the world.
They give us values, inspirations, warnings, and incentives. We
need them. We use them. We keep them. They reverberate throughout
our lives, affecting our choices in love, work, friendship, and
lifestyle.
Elizabeth Stone, whose grandparents came from Italy to Brooklyn,
artfully weaves her own family stories among the stories of more
than a hundred people of all backgrounds, ages, and
regions--clarifying for us predictable types of family legends,
providing ways to interpret our own stories and their roles in our
lives. She examines stories of birth, death, work, money, and
romantic adventure--all in the context of the family storytelling
ritual. And she shows how stories about our most ancient ancestors
may provide answers at milestone moments in our lives, as well as
how stories about our newest family members carve out places for
them so that they will fit into their families, comfortably or
otherwise.
Upon its initial publication in 1988, Studs Terkel said that
the book is "A wholly original approach to an ancient theme: family
storytelling and its lasting mark on the individual." Judy Collins
noted that "Elizabeth Stone's marvelous book on family myths and
fables is irresistible. It lets us in on our own secrets in a
provocative and exciting way." And Maggie Scarf wrote, "What a
clever topic, and how beautifully Elizabeth Stone has written about
it I recommend Black Sheep and Kissing Cousins for everyone who has
ever been raised in a family."
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