Charleston County Public Library

Her, a memoir, Christa Parravani

eng

collective biography

portraits

no index present

non fiction

Her

796756402

Christa Parravani

a memoir

"Christa Parravani and her identical twin, Cara, shared a bond that went beyond friendship, beyond siblinghood, beyond sisterhood. Raised up from poverty by a determined single mother, the gifted and beautiful girls sheltered each other from family violence and loss by inventing a haven of playfulness and creativity between themselves. They went on to earn scholarships to a prestigious college, to pursue careers as artists (Cara was the writer; Christa, the photographer), and to pair off exuberantly in early marriages. But when Cara fell victim to an act of brutality, she became unable to keep personal demons at bay. She veered off the path to robust work and life into depression, drugs, and a shocking early death. Studies of twins have shown that when an identical twin dies, regardless of the cause, the surviving twin's life is immediately at risk. Living without one's mirror self can feel impossible, and then become so. This was the case for Christa when Cara died. First, Christa fought to stop her sister's downward, sex-and-drugs spiral; then, she wrestled with a powerful desire to become her sister, a yearning that would ask, inevitably, for Christa's life. But as Christa ... unspools the story of her love, her loss, her temptations, and her search for a new beginning, she rises like a phoenix .... The act of creating [this] text ... helped to transform her into an identical able to live without her twin."--Front flap of jacket