Like all family members who must sacrifice their dreams and postpone their ambitions to take care of a single member who is in extremis, Lorna Person, the narrator, swallows a hell of a lot for the good of her sister - at an age where self-sacrifice is not voluntary or heroic. However, in spite of enduring a sustained nightmare of her sister's 22-hour rages, theatrical suicide attempts, and inventive acts of destruction, Lorna's story is remarkably upbeat and infused with the black humor and attendant creativity of her relationship with her near-feral sibling.
Seemingly doomed to a life of over-the-top sensitivity - Lorna can cry at the drop of a pin - she manages to survive a family exhausted by its secret of mental illness by developing an all-powerful, tragicomic fantasy life comprised of theatrical dramatic roles, poetry, and the culture and texture of the 60s.
A peephole into the intimate, image-rich world of the emotionally ill, 'My Sister From The Black Lagoon' is a surprisingly funny and sometimes sad story of finding identity amid chaos.
