Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy, Publisher: Harper Perennial (March 18, 2003),
ISBN-10: 0060569662 (first published in 1994)
Rating: 5 of 5 STARS
Source: Non-Fiction TBR List for 2009
Over a year ago (I can't find the review on my blog, so it must have been some time ago) I read Truth and Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett. It was about Patchett's relationship with another author and poet, Lucy Grealy. Here's a little snippet from School Library Journal:
Patchett first met the poet in college, became her roommate in graduate school, and remained devoted to her through years of artistic, medical, economic, and emotional upheavals. The ties binding these two women included resolve to meet physical adversity with energy and to place friendship beyond the reaches of either habit or convenience.
Patchett's book was wonderful. Moving, insightful, tender. I would rate it a "5", too. After reading Truth and Beauty, I began looking around for a copy of Autobiography of a Face by Patchett's friend, Lucy Grealy. I put it on my Non-Fiction TBR list for this year and read it at the beach this week. It was an incredibly moving story by a very gifted writer.
Here's the summary from Amazon.com:
At age nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with a potentially terminal cancer. When she returned to school with a third of her jaw removed, she faced the cruel taunts of classmates. In this strikingly candid memoir, Grealy tells her story of great suffering and remarkable strength without sentimentality and with considerable wit. Vividly portraying the pain of peer rejection and the guilty pleasure of wanting to be special, Grealy captures with unique insight what it is like as a child and young adult to be torn between two warring impulses: to feel that more than anything else we want to be loved for who we are, while wishing desperately and secretly to be perfect.
The thing that struck me the most in this book was how much Grealy wanted to be loved...and how much she felt the lack of love in her life was due to her appearance. I was finishing Frankenstein at the same time I was reading Autobiography and there was a similar thread running through it: Victor Frankenstein's creation wanted so much to be loved and accepted by humans, but because of his grotesque appearance he couldn't find the love he so very much craved. I wouldn't dare compare Grealy's appearance to Frankenstein (although I bet she probably would) but I think her pain of rejection because of her appearance was the same as what Mary Shelley wrote about in Frankenstein. Anyway, it was interesting that I was reading both books at the same time.
I would recommend both of these books: Truth and Beauty and Autobiography of a Face. I would read them in the opposite order than what I did, though. Start with Autobiography and then go to Truth and Beauty. I think I would have understood more fully Patchett's memoir of their friendship if I had read Lucy Grealy's story of her battle with cancer first. Both are great authors.
Click here for Good Words I found in Autobiography of a Face.
ISBN-10: 0060569662 (first published in 1994)
Rating: 5 of 5 STARS
Source: Non-Fiction TBR List for 2009
Over a year ago (I can't find the review on my blog, so it must have been some time ago) I read Truth and Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett. It was about Patchett's relationship with another author and poet, Lucy Grealy. Here's a little snippet from School Library Journal:
Patchett first met the poet in college, became her roommate in graduate school, and remained devoted to her through years of artistic, medical, economic, and emotional upheavals. The ties binding these two women included resolve to meet physical adversity with energy and to place friendship beyond the reaches of either habit or convenience.
Patchett's book was wonderful. Moving, insightful, tender. I would rate it a "5", too. After reading Truth and Beauty, I began looking around for a copy of Autobiography of a Face by Patchett's friend, Lucy Grealy. I put it on my Non-Fiction TBR list for this year and read it at the beach this week. It was an incredibly moving story by a very gifted writer.
Here's the summary from Amazon.com:
At age nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with a potentially terminal cancer. When she returned to school with a third of her jaw removed, she faced the cruel taunts of classmates. In this strikingly candid memoir, Grealy tells her story of great suffering and remarkable strength without sentimentality and with considerable wit. Vividly portraying the pain of peer rejection and the guilty pleasure of wanting to be special, Grealy captures with unique insight what it is like as a child and young adult to be torn between two warring impulses: to feel that more than anything else we want to be loved for who we are, while wishing desperately and secretly to be perfect.
The thing that struck me the most in this book was how much Grealy wanted to be loved...and how much she felt the lack of love in her life was due to her appearance. I was finishing Frankenstein at the same time I was reading Autobiography and there was a similar thread running through it: Victor Frankenstein's creation wanted so much to be loved and accepted by humans, but because of his grotesque appearance he couldn't find the love he so very much craved. I wouldn't dare compare Grealy's appearance to Frankenstein (although I bet she probably would) but I think her pain of rejection because of her appearance was the same as what Mary Shelley wrote about in Frankenstein. Anyway, it was interesting that I was reading both books at the same time.
I would recommend both of these books: Truth and Beauty and Autobiography of a Face. I would read them in the opposite order than what I did, though. Start with Autobiography and then go to Truth and Beauty. I think I would have understood more fully Patchett's memoir of their friendship if I had read Lucy Grealy's story of her battle with cancer first. Both are great authors.
Click here for Good Words I found in Autobiography of a Face.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment