New Year's Eve, 1997 / Singular sensations : childhood -- Postcards to myself / Teller. I'm my own grandpa / Molly Jong-Fast -- Imaginary enemies / Sarah Towers -- Air only / Ted Rose -- The hotline / Alissa Quart -- Becoming an only child / Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn -- We are-- family : significant others and friends -- Triangulation : a love story / Deborah Siegel -- Laundry distance / Lynn Harris -- Odd numbers / Thomas Beller -- Separation and the single girl / Sara Reistad-Long -- Blood of my blood / Rebecca Walker -- Dodging Laurie / Daphne Uviller -- A sib for junior? : parenting -- Letter to my second child / John Hodgman -- My Jane / Peter Ho Davies -- Succumbing to two / Amy Richards -- Mother of two / Janice Nimura -- Minority report / Judith Thurman -- Still only after all these years : tables turned -- The forest of memory / Kathryn Harrison -- A pair of onlys / Alysia Abbott -- You're it / Betty Rollin -- New Year's Eve, 1997 / Teller.
Summary:
Twenty-one acclaimed writers tell the truth about life without siblings--the bliss of solitude, the ache of loneliness, and everything in between. They reflect on the single, transforming episode that defined each of them as an only child. For some it came while lurking around the edges of a friend's boisterous family, longing to be part of the chaos. For others, it came in sterile hospital halls, while single-handedly caring for a parent with cancer. They write about the parents who raised them, from the devoted to the dismissive. They describe what it's like to be an only child of divorce, an only because of the death of a sibling, an only who reveled in it or an only who didn't.--From publisher description.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.