From the beloved film star and best-selling author of Then Again--a heartfelt memoir about Diane Keaton's relationship with her younger brother, and a poignant exploration of the divergent paths siblings' lives can take.
DIANE KEATON has starred in some of the most memorable films of the past forty years, including the Godfather trilogy, Annie Hall, Manhattan, Reds, Baby Boom, The First Wives Club, and Something's Gotta Give. Her many awards include the Golden Globe and the Academy Award. She is the author of the New York Times best-selling memoir Then Again and the essay collection Let's Just Say It Wasn't Pretty. Keaton lives with her daughter and son in Los Angeles.
“[A] brave memoir . . . Keaton takes a long, hard look at her
relationship with her younger brother, Randy, whose descent into
mental illness parallels her climb to the stratosphere of
stardom.”
—Elisabeth Egan, The New York Times Book Review
“[A] poignant story about two siblings, Brother &
Sister is a fascinating exercise in writing a personal and
methodical tale about someone who has come to feel, in some sense,
like a stranger . . . Searching and rueful in tone, [it] departs
from many celebrity memoirs in its focus.”
—Hannah Giorgis, The Atlantic
“With prose as quirky and affecting as her on-screen
personas, Diane Keaton’s third memoir is the most wrenching
yet as she tries to understand how her beloved younger brother
Randy became a troubled recluse who lives ‘on the other side of
normal.’”
—O Magazine
“Candid . . . A raw, often difficult read—Keaton doesn’t shy from
sharing just how troubled a life [her brother] Randy led. She turns
to her mother’s family archive, as well as Randy’s own extensive
writings to try to make sense of her brother. In clean, piercing
prose, Keaton examines midcentury American family dynamics and
gender roles; she’s also honest about her own ambitions and
how convenient it was to allow them to put distance between her and
her family’s problems. ‘I want to have another chance at being a
better sister,’ Keaton writes in the book’s final pages, and she’s
embracing what time she and Randy have left to do just that.”
—Barbara VanDenburgh, USA Today
“A powerful account of one family’s struggle with mental
illness.”
—The New Yorker
“Brother & Sister tenderly traces Keaton’s evolving relationship
with her younger brother: a new book worth paying attention
to.”
—David Canfield, Entertainment Weekly
“A deeply personal portrait of Diane Keaton’s family; also a
beautiful look at the bonds and barriers of siblinghood.”
—Katie Yee, Lit Hub
“Fascinating . . . Brother & Sister is tough-minded, unvarnished
and, finally, affecting in the extreme. Keaton had won fame and
glory as a movie star even as her [younger] brother was struggling
to find his footing—a fact not lost on her. Randy led a troubled
life, including a failed marriage, a taste for alcohol and
frustrated artistic ambitions. Despite their intermittent
interactions, Keaton still holds sympathy for Randy, with whom she
has come to have more contact as his health struggles mount.
Fitting for a performer who tries to bring to life the lives of
others, Keaton continually tries to grasp what makes her brother
tick.”
—Peter Tonguette, Columbus Dispatch
“Keaton intimately describes loving and living with a troubled
sibling, tracing her childhood with her brother Randy. Illustrating
years they spent both together and apart, she showcases the
difficulties of loving someone you can never fully understand.”
—Annabel Gutterman, Time
“Immersive and haunting . . . Keaton eloquently and unflinchingly
examines her younger brother’s life, drawing from excerpts of his
poetry and her mother’s journals and letters . . . A cohesive,
honest look at an entire family impacted by a troubled individual,
as well as how Keaton maintained a bond with her sibling despite
tremendous challenges. A must for Keaton’s fans and for those
seeking to comprehend the nuances of sibling and family
relationships.”
—Library Journal
“A resonant family memoir—a slim but weighty book. Keaton focuses
on her complex relationship with her younger brother, whose
escalating instability—vividly described—affected Keaton, her
parents, and her two sisters. The author, who became the ‘family
documentarian’ after her mother’s death, utilizes family letters
and journals to enhance the narrative . . . Keaton talks about the
complexities of loving a brother she never quite knew; of watching
him become consumed by alcohol and then ‘falling into the process
of dying’; and of wishing she had done more to help him . . . A
haunting meditation on mortality, sibling love, mental illness, and
regret.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Poignant . . an addition to Keaton’s two previous works of memoir
[in which] she strives to understand her troubled younger brother,
Randy Hall. She recalls the pair at 5 and 3, sharing a bedroom; in
the second part of the book she depicts the siblings sitting
quietly, as Keaton holds her ailing brother’s hand. In between
these moments of intimacy, Keaton admits to long periods of
estrangement from Randy, who ‘took failure and wore it the way
Hester Prynne wore her scarlet letter,’ spending an isolated life
writing, collaging, drinking, and existing by grace of the
support—financial and otherwise—of his parents and sisters . . .
Keaton thoughtfully wrestles with her conscience while attempting
to assemble a clearer picture of her brother's nature. She sheds
her whimsical persona to explore difficult burdens, which those
with an unstable sibling will recognize.”
—Kirkus
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