His 1998 debut, “Animal Husbandry,” which inspired the movie “Someone Like You,” “was about breaking up and moving in with a womanizer,” Zigman says. “Look!” When she wrote “Dating Big Bird” (2000), she was, of course, worried about having her only child, and “Her” (2002) talked about her husband’s most beautiful ex-wife. The book “Separation Anxiety” says Zigman, “is about a woman who keeps her dog tied to her in a baby carrier, just like an unnamed narrator. .”
Not surprisingly, drama is at the heart of “Small World” also happens in real life.
Zigman’s older brother, born with a rare bone disease, died at age 7. In Zigman’s fiction, Mellishman’s middle daughter dies of cerebral palsy at age 10, driving a wedge between Joyce and Lydia, the two survivors. Ten years later, 30 years later, Lydia walks into Joyce’s Cambridge, Mass. home. Both women are newly divorced. One hopes to heal his childhood wounds. Spoiler alert: fat risk.
“I started ‘Small World’ thinking about all the ways these sisters push each other’s buttons,” Zigman told me, “and how their own interests, hidden at a young age, it affects their adult relationships – in their marriages now, and with each other.”
Showcasing Zigman’s emotional range, “Small World” is flavored by the intensity of his realism. The story is poignant and humorous, thought-provoking and light-hearted, and inspiring.
Is there a sibling alive who hasn’t been twinned at the same time, a different kind of person that separates their history and family history, but also their DNA? “That’s what sisters do,” Joyce told a friend. “They confuse each other, envy each other, and punish each other for reasons they don’t understand.”
In fiction, as in life, the true spirit of man is captured in the act of solving problems. For that, Zigman sends the fan Joyce and her sister into the wrestling ring with a new problem: The upstairs neighbors, Stan and Sonia, have changed their living room into a yoga studio, as loud cries disrupt Joyce’s peace. . Stomp, stomp up the stairs go the students; slap and slap their rugs on the bare floor. Joyce shouted in Defcon mode. Silent (or is she angry?) Lydia secretly befriends Stan and Sonia and spends time in their studio.
Furious to discover Lydia’s betrayal, Joyce reunites with her yogi roommate and step sister. “Sonia came quietly, her long hair in a loose bun, her white pants flowing like she was floating on the bed instead of walking.” Joyce threatens to report Stan and Sonia to the landlord, and the city, which provides the perfect setup for Zigman’s report.
“Why on earth would you do that?” Sonia asked.
“Because. The. It’s illegal,” Joyce shot back.
“Joyce, this is Cambridge,” Sonia replied. “It was also known as the People’s Republic of Cambridge. It is home to anti-war protesters, civil rights activists, and folk music lovers. Free thinkers. Lawbreakers. … Maybe if you came to try a class, you can go ahead now”.
“You’re carrying a lot of weight when you don’t have it. I can hear it.”
“Let’s do it, Joyce,” Lydia said. “Maybe we’ll learn something about ourselves and each other. That may be what changes our relationship.
Struggling behind her bedroom door after not talking about peace, Joyce said, “I’m tired of trying to get him to see me. It’s like childhood: There’s nothing what I need.
Unable to contain her emotions, Joyce jumped out of bed and wrote an eviction notice, which she shoved under Lydia’s bedroom door – a heart He was disappointed when the family’s past and present secrets came to light. It’s nice to meet a simple, easy-going Joyce, even if it comes at a high price for her redemption.
In the book “Acknowledgments,” Zigman mocks his true and fictional stories. She wrote, “When I told my sister Linda that I was going to write a book about two sisters who … finally accepted the situation of the death of another sister in the state of their family, and he said: I trust you. Is there a better gift than that?”
Not for this reader. If an older actor like Joyce could trade his lesser characters, I thought, maybe I could.
Meredith Maran is a journalist, journalist and author of “The New Old Me: My Late-Life Reinvention,” among other books.
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