What causes two sisters who share a whimsical yet calamitous upbringing to become estranged adults? In her debut autobiography, A Family Divided: A Memoir, Jackson leaps brilliantly into the literary scene and candidly guides readers through a witty read as she searches for an answer to this very personal question. Clues are unearthed in a series of life events that combine sibling alcoholism, a secret life as a lesbian, a career in deaf education, and ever-faithful canine companions. She begins with a loving chronicle of her parents’ unlikely meeting and takes readers along as the family embarks on a transient military lifestyle. But when Jackson’s mother is diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the fabric of the family begins to fray, and the sisters experience their mother’s declining health in vastly different ways. Told with a compelling and open heart, A Family Divided: A Memoir, highlights parenting with the best of intentions and the disastrous interpersonal relationship with which the sisters are destined to contend. Delightfully surprising is how life events come together in a quick and quirky read.