From the introduction to The Family Diary, a 2024 planner edited by Julian Rothenstein, which was published last month by Redstone Press.

If, when a child is growing up, it develops a spirit of rebellion, the closest institution to revolt against is the family. The family is where you are first misjudged, maltreated, belittled, lied to and beaten—or not. The Polish-American poet Czesław Miłosz is famously quoted making the claim: “When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished.” This seems absurdly overstated. However, there is more than a grain of truth in it.

Some kind…