Deborah Tannen

Deborah Tannen's latest book is You Were Always Mom's Favorite!: Sisters in Conversation Throughout Their Lives. From her Q & A with Deborah Solomon in the New York Times Magazine:

As a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and the author of many popular books on the language of relationships, what did you learn about the current state of sisterhood from researching your new book, “You Were Always Mom’s Favorite!”?

Sister relationships span a huge range, from best friends to worst enemies. From “I adore her; I talk to her five times a day” to “I decided to cut her out of my life.” For most women, it’s in between.

Would you say that literature has overemphasized the darker side of sisterhood? I am thinking of Cordelia and her abusive sisters in “King Lear.”
In Cordelia and the Cinderella stories, there are three sisters, but it’s really two against one. The two baddies are...[read on]

Visit Deborah Tannen's website.

--Marshal Zeringue