Autobiography of a Face in Our Shared Shelf

May 25, 2017 Meghan Brannon-Reese rated it really liked it

Shelves: memoir-autobiography

I really liked this book. I picked it as a summer reading selection for my 11th grade students. Lucy Grealy writes about her childhood, when she was diagnosed with a sarcoma in her jaw. She had to have portions removed and spent several years attempting to reconstruct it. She writes about the impact on her life - how other children treated her and the financial strain it took on her family, among other things - with lyrical prose that is powerful and uplifting.

I never found the writing to be ma ...more

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Mar 14, 2010 Cristol Rippe rated it really liked it

A beautifully written book if you can get past the sadness of the story. Would be an interesting read for a teenage girl struggling with self esteem / how she looks - as long as she is mature enough for the content.

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Sep 19, 2008 Cynthia Paschen rated it really liked it

From the afterward, by Ann Patchett: "She taught me something...about the nature of writing and the nature of truth. In the right hands, a memoir is the flecks of gold panned out of a great, muddy river. A memoir is those flecks melted down into a shapeable liquid that can be molded and hammered into a single bright band to be worn on a finger, something you could point to and say, "This? Oh, this is my life. Everyone has a muddy river but very few have the vision, patience and talent to turn it ...more

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