My Sister from the Black Lagoon - by Laurie Fox (Paperback)

About the Book

In a novel, based on the author's wild and woolly years with her charismatic mentally ill sister, the heroine has no choice but to sacrifice her own life for her sister's well-being.

Book Synopsis

"I was born into a mentally ill family. My sister was the officially crazy one, but really we were all nuts."
So begins My Sister from the Black Lagoon, Laurie Fox's incandescent novel of growing up absurd. Lorna Person's tale is wrested from the shadows cast by her sister, Lonnie, whose rages command the full attention of her parents. Their San Fernando Valley household is off-key and out of kilter, a place where Lonnie sees evil in the morning toast and runs into the Burbank hills to join the animals that seem more like her kin. Lorna, on the other hand, is an acutely sensitive girl who can't relate to Barbie. "Could Barbie feel sorrow? Could Barbie understand what it's like to be plump, lonely, Jewish?"
My Sister from the Black Lagoon is a wisecracked bell jar, a heartbreaking study of sane and crazy. Laurie Fox's delightful voice is knowing yet wide-eyed, lyrical, and witty.

From the Back Cover

So begins My Sister from the Black Lagoon, Laurie Fox's incandescent novel of growing up absurd. Lorna Person's tale is wrested from the shadows cast by her sister, Lonnie, whose rages command the full attention of her parents. Their San Fernando Valley household is off-key and out of kilter, a place where Lonnie sees evil in the morning toast and runs into the Burbank hills to join the animals that seem more like her kin. Lorna, on the other hand, is an acutely sensitive girl who can't relate to Barbie. "Could Barbie feel sorrow? Could Barbie understand what it's like to be plump, lonely, Jewish?"

My Sister from the Black Lagoon is a wisecracked bell jar, a heartbreaking study of sane and crazy. Laurie Fox's delightful voice is knowing yet wide-eyed, lyrical, and witty.

Review Quotes

Publishers Weekly, starred review A triumph of storytelling verve, dark humor, and unabashed candor.

Beth Witrogen McLeod San Francisco Examiner Hypnotic, darkly humorous.

Elisabeth Sherwin Book Page Laurie Fox has managed to turn what could have been a harrowing and depressing autobiographical novel into a moving and funny story.

Jan Winburn The Baltimore Sun Achingly honest and surprisingly funny...heartrending.

Margaria Fichtner The Miami Herald [A] remarkable, almost aggressively vibrant blend of fiction and memoir.

Valerie Frankel The New York Times Book Review Fox's prose is beautiful...effective and stirring.

About the Author

Laurie Fox is the author of the autobiographical novel, My Sister from the Black Lagoon, The Lost Girls, and the interactive poetry book, Sexy Hieroglyphics. She has also published two chapbooks, Sweeping Beauty and I Love Walt, and her poetry has been included in several literary journals. A graduate of the University of California Santa Cruz, Laurie has written and performed in dozens of plays and performance artworks. A former bookseller of both new and antiquarian books, Laurie was also a long-time creative writing teacher and works in publishing. A native of Los Angeles, Laurie resides in Berkeley, CA, where she lived in author Philip K. Dick's teenage home for seventeen years and still dreams of electric sheep!