Autobiography of a Face
 | By Lucy Grealy Harper Perennial, 2003, Paperback Customer Rating: 101 reviews Recommend |
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"I spent five years of my life being treated for cancer, but since then I've spent fifteen years being treated for nothing other than looking different from everyone else. It was the pain from that, from feeling ugly, that I always viewed as the great tragedy of my life. The fact that I had cancer seemed minor in comparison."
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 pleasures 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.
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
Title: Autobiography of a Face
Sales Rank: 7350 in Books
Author: Lucy Grealy
Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2003-03-18, Paperback, 256 pages, ISBN: 0060569662
Package Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches, 0.4 pounds
- Straightforward Account on Cancer and Social Isolation
- Books about dealing with and/or surviving cancer number in the thousands, as do their recurrent themes of life affirmation, love and mortality. However, none are so concentrated on self-acceptance and the value of physical beauty as renowned poet Lucy Grealy's 1994 memoir "Autobiography of a Face".
Grealy's memoir traces her life from early childhood all the way to her college… More reviews
- Autobiography of a Face Review
- Lucy Grealy tells a beautiful story in the autobiography titled Autobiography of a Face. The story begins positively with Lucy's migration from Ireland to the United States with her parents and two obnoxious brothers. Her brother's were disgusted with the American culture while Lucy embraced it. Life seemed to be going extremely well for Lucy until one… More reviews
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- As a child, it is normal to be self-conscious and to examine ones every flaw, even if they appear perfect to others. The world will always hold things better than one's own, and there will always be ways to be envious of others in the search to be perfect or at least "normal."
Diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a cancer that quickly pecked away at her jaw, Lucy Grealy reveals… More reviews
- The Review of a Face
- Lucy Grealy's memoir, Autobiography of a Face follows her story of a young girl starting at about age ten and her struggle with dealing with serious cancer that infected her jaw and the painful surgery that reconstructs her face. Her writing is poetic like and pretty. I was also very amused and found many parts of her writing… More reviews
- Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...Go Away
- With great description and vivid detail, Lucy Grealy explains the traumatic effects of living with cancer treatments and a crooked jaw line in her memoir, The Autobiography of a Face. Grealy reveals her inner thoughts of self-consciousness in her everyday interactions, portraying how even a simple conversation can provoke great anxiety: "Out of nowhere came an intense feeling that he shouldn't… More reviews
