Nothing Special (eBook)

(The Mostly True, Sometimes Funny Tale of Two Sisters)

Dianne Bilyak (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2012
208 Seiten
Wesleyan University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8195-8030-6 (ISBN)

Infos

This account of two siblings, one with Down syndrome, growing up in 1970s Connecticut is “rich in character, humor, hard-earned insights, and love” (Rachel Simon, author of Riding the Bus with My Sister).Nothing Special is a disarmingly candid tale of two sisters growing up in the 1970s in rural Connecticut. Older sister Chris, who has Down syndrome, is an extrovert with a knack for getting what she wants, while the author, her younger, typically developing sister, shoulders the burdens and grief of her parents, especially their father’s alcoholism. Dianne Bilyak details wrestling with their mixed emotions in vignettes that range from heartrending to laugh-out-loud funny, including anecdotes about Chris’s habit of faux-smoking Popsicle sticks or partying through the night with her invisible friends. Poet and disability advocate Bilyak strikes a rare balance between poignant and hilarious as she paints a compassionate and critical real-world picture of their lives. They struggle, separately and together, with the tension between dependence and independence, the complexities of giving versus receiving, the pressure to live as others expect, and in the end, the wonderful liberation of self-acceptance.“With charming specificity and hilarity, Bilyak writes frankly about her own identity, and that of her sister’s, comparing her own self-consciousness with her sister’s striking lack thereof . . . Bilyak hits home something that we so badly need to hear right now: that people with disabilities are not a monolith, and that there is no perfect way to love or be loved by them.” —Bekah Brunstetter, writer and producer for NBC’s This is Us

Autor

amp;lt;P>DIANNE BILYAK (Stafford Springs, CT) is a Pushcart-prize nominated writer, graduate of the Yale Divinity School, and Connecticut disability rights advocate. Her book of poems Against the Turning was published by Amherst Writers & Artists Press in 2011, and her poetry has also been featured in Meat for Tea, Freshwater, Drunken Boat, The Massachusetts Review, and The Tampa Review.</P>

Inhalt

<P>Title • TOC • Acknowledgments • PART I: C + D: Early Snapshots • The Art of Losing • Trisomy • Get In the Car • C + D: Early Snapshots • Fa(r)ther • Holy Rollers • Gawk • PART II: "Can You Take Me with You?" • Slumber Party Massacre • The Lovely Bus • Looking for the Spotlight • Well, Ya Flunked • To: Dick, From: Santa • "Can You Take Me with You?" • Darkness and Heights and Speed, Oh My! • PART III: Land of the Lost Years • Cain &amp; Dis-Abel-d • The Origin of Dr. Irma King • Acts of Contrition • Land of the Lost Years • Breaking Point • The Abyss • Mass Hysteria • Final Admissions • PART IV: "Make It Better" • Three of a Kind • Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrowland • Out Singled • Hear, Here • Agency • "Make It Better" • Self-Portrait • Make Ends Meet (epilogue?) • Endnotes</P>

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 8.2.2021
• Reihe/Serie: The Driftless Series
• Zusatzinfo: 10 b&w halftones
• Verlagsort: Middletown
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 150 x 150 mm
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Familie / Erziehung
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Lebenshilfe / Lebensführung
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch ► Sachbücher
• Schlagworte: Dianne Bilyak, Nothing Special, The often true, sometimes funny tales of two sisters, Wesleyan University Press, WUP, Siblinghood, Sisterhood, Family, Disability, Disability Movement, Parenthood, Parents, Medicine, Caregiver, Disability Studies, Special Education, Alcoholism, Alcoholic, Anxiety, Depression, Mental Health, Memoir, Storytelling, Personal, Self, Selfhood, Reflection, Personhood, Identity, Development, Chronicle, Struggle, Connection, Independence, Relationship, Familial Structure, Down syndrom
• ISBN-10: 0-8195-8030-9 / 0819580309
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8195-8030-6 / 9780819580306