She can’t just pretend none of that happened. She can’t. But of course—she can. I have changed my sister’s name in this book, out of respect for her choice, and as much as possible I have changed my other family members’ names and the names of some of the people in Ricky’s life. But I can’t bring myself to write a narrative that puts my experience alone in my family again. I won’t do on the page what was done in life.
