About the Book

Letters From My Sister is a memoir of our lives in progress comprising a collection of correspondence. Our offbeat adventures run the gamut from men to careers to hair removal, and we blame all our frustrations and fears on our Jewish mother who used to buy an entire tongue pickled from the butcher. She’d plop the whole organ down on the table like an autopsy. We were traumatized by that tongue.

Our book began with a simple letter about a bad job interview or a bad hair day, seeking comfort from hundreds of miles away. One letter plus its response became two, two turned into four, and we then accumulated more than 100 over the course of a year. During this time, we shared our struggles and became each other’s role models as we talked about careers and relationships and reassured ourselves that we are not alone in our search for the ultimate man (a big, buff, macho, kind, sensitive, feminist), the ideal job or the perfect hair removal method. (“Plucking is definitely the way to go for leg hair,” recommends Faye. “It also serves as a good substitute for a nine-to-five job.”)

We were independent but not quite adult, pursuing a career but not yet “career women.” We worried about clothes and makeup, but still expected to be taken seriously; wanted a boyfriend but yearned for female role models; and we learned to face our challenges head-on, hoping to emerge as strong and sensitive, smart and sexy, feisty yet feminine. Though we confront our femininity, we are not confined by it; rather, we use it as a prism to critique many aspects of modern society including the corporate world, technology, academia, gender roles, urban living and familial relationships.

Even though Faye and I lived apart, we grew closer together, and an unbreakable bond emerged as our lives unfolded. Through our correspondence, we relate stories and reveal secrets in a way that only sisters can—with a raw openness and honesty derived from a lifetime of shared experiences that surpasses the bond of best friends.