Family is not just a memoir concerning the author's own family. Rather, it is an attempt to capture the complex relationships within this human structure: the sharing and the loyalty, the strength and the weakness, the ebb and the flow of love, the laughter and the tears along with the joys and the sorrows found amongst most kith and kin. There is no perfect family in the world; however, a family is certainly (or should be) a sanctuary (and a bulwark) against the blows of life that will come.