Alumni News - Eileen Garvin reading

Eileen Garvin will read from her memoir, How to Be a Sister: A Love Story with a Twist of Autism. The book explores the simultaneously awkward, hilarious, and heartbreaking situations she experienced as a younger sister to Margaret, diagnosed with severe autism at age 3.

How to Be a Sister begins when Eileen, after several years in New Mexico, has just moved back to the Pacific Northwest, where she grew up. Being 1,600 miles away had allowed Eileen to avoid the question that has dogged her since birth: What is she going to do about Margaret? Now, Eileen must grapple with this question once again as she tentatively tries to reconnect with Margaret. How can she have a relationship with someone who can't drive, send email, or telephone? What role will Eileen play in Margaret's life as their parents age, and after they die? Will she remain in Margaret's life, or walk away?

This is a rarely explored relationship, and for anyone interested in the human experience, this story reveals a bewildering and beautiful world that will dismantle regular notions of normalcy, family and acceptance.

"A marvelous, harrowing, life-affirming book. In looking to forge a meaningful relationship with her severely autistic sister, Eileen Garvin finds a simpler way of being in, and extending, every moment. Isn't that what we're all after? I loved this book. And boy, can she write!"
-Abigail Thomas, author of A Three Dog Life: A Memoir

Location:

Bookworks
4022 Rio Grande Blvd NW#Flying Star Plaza
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87107-3157