Although I have had some confrontations with my younger sister and brother, my relationship with both have been pretty positive.

It’s a different picture for my father and his siblings. There is plenty of negativity and competitiveness between them.

I think we’re rarely truthful enough about the difficulty and complexity of sibling relationships. My sister is 18 months older than me and either we are simpatico in every way or I can’t stand her. My relationships with her and our younger brother are an ongoing puzzle that I find exhausting.

As to strong sibling relationships in literature, I’ve spent an awful lot of time thinking about this as I am very close to my own sister and to my brother and we never suffered from the ‘oldest’ middle etc syndrome – although when I was a teenager I did get annoyed briefly when my friends started hanging out with my sister as well (she’s younger by 18 months).

Anyway back on point, Little Women always stood out for me as a child and I always remember the family in Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love who are very close in their own way. Rosamund Lehman has a great book about two sisters, Invitation to the Waltz, which also has a brilliant sequel, but the relationship isn’t a happy one.

Oh I know the sisters in the wonderful I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith are genuinely close.

@waxghost, haven’t seen the U.S. remake of “Being Human” … the BBC version does have some really nice platonic, sibling-like relationships in it. Though I’d argue that the “chosen family” aspect of the three main characters is a bit different than siblings who have grown up together. At least from the standpoint of cultural narratives.

@WingStaff, totally agree that the mother in Downton Abbey is egging her daughters on in competitive ways. Lady Crawley is a difficult character to sympathize with, I thought (though I understand some of her motivations).

@Av0gadro, I understand your point re: “happy families,” but I always feel that is something of a cop-out. With both family relationships and intimate/sexual relationship stories. First, because historically speaking we haven’t always shied so consistently away from telling stories about successful, long-lasting relationships (familial or sexual). And second, because I don’t believe that “happiness” somehow has less narrative depth or complexity than unhappiness.

What I absolutely agree with is that as a culture we have a very impoverished vocabulary for talking about successful, joyful, fulfilling, stable relationships of many kinds. So when we do try to portray them, the portrayals come off trite and cliche. I think that’s a fault of our imagination, not the nature of solid relationships themselves.

I haven’t come across any literature that depicts my family life, especially sibling relationships.
I come from a family where there were more than 5 kids (where one of us kids came from a previous parental relationship), where I was the second oldest and eldest daughter.

By virtue of my birth order and gender, I had different expectations and responsibilities to my other brothers and sisters, and in particular elements of caring and concern for my siblings that were not expected for those younger than me.
This caused issues when I was younger, and like with most relationships there are highs and lows.

I ‘escaped’ the expectations that were put on me – in particular I wasn’t married when I left the family home and still not married now (despite half of my brothers and sisters being married).

In some ways, being one of the eldest, I have made my own way in the world, which is somewhat out of character for an elder child. But then birth order analysis seems to stop at about 3 or 4 siblings, so I’m not sure if this is true to type..

Then again, I also come from a family in which loving, happy couples are the norm. You don’t see that on TV often either!

Av0gadro, I agree that this is probably due at least in part to the fact that peaceful relationships aren’t as exciting stories.