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4.4 AVERAGE
4.4 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
inspiring
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
In this exceptional collection of deeply personal essays, the multi-talented Sarah Polley, reveals the many traumatic incidents that have her shaped her. She has been running from the dangers since her youth and has the physical and emotional scars to show for it. With the help of therapy, loving relationships and incredible strength, determination and her razor sharp wit, she is now running to the danger, staring it down, and taking charge. She is a force.
Loved this book. I don’t think Polley intended to give out advice but, through her unflinching account of some of her life’s biggest moments, I felt a sense of listening to someone I look up to share themselves in a way that gave me some insight into handling what we all go through. Or at the very least, the opportunity to feel less alone in the process.
I do not like to rate memoirs, as I've said before. I did find Polley's series of essays to be really compelling. Kind of a heavy read, as it discusses the MeToo movement, high risk pregnancy, and various dangerous experiences she faced as a child. I'm not sure I see anyone else in the reviews that feels the same way, but I did her to be a little too sympathetic towards certain figures in her life, particularly her father. This book has further solidified that if I were to ever have kids, they would not be allowed anywhere near the entertainment industry. I would recommend this to people who have a fixation on Alice in Wonderland, those who enjoy reading about The Fucked-Up Lives of Child Actors (like my uncle Max, who recommended this book), and those who are considering exposure therapy.
To be honest I never heard of Sarah Polley until this book came out and it has been on my TBR list since I saw it recommended in a bookstore. I am so glad I finally got around to reading it. These essays revolve around body trauma and it isn’t like any memoir I have read before. They are not essays to necessarily make you feel bad about Polley’s life but they were more to acknowledge these traumas exist and how she navigated through them. To arise from the toll on her mental and physical health from a young age is something to commemorate.
I really resonated with the second essay re: her encounters with Jian Ghomeshi and couldn’t help but recount my experiences with sexual abuse quite emotionally. Thank you Sarah for your empowering words that helped me realize things about sexual abuse victims that I have not realized before.
I really resonated with the second essay re: her encounters with Jian Ghomeshi and couldn’t help but recount my experiences with sexual abuse quite emotionally. Thank you Sarah for your empowering words that helped me realize things about sexual abuse victims that I have not realized before.
The best book I’ve read this year.
I’m so grateful she was so vulnerable to share with us all these stories, and I’m leaving this book a different person.
From here on out, I’m going to work more at running toward the danger in my life. Thanks, Sarah.
I’m so grateful she was so vulnerable to share with us all these stories, and I’m leaving this book a different person.
From here on out, I’m going to work more at running toward the danger in my life. Thanks, Sarah.
This was an amazing, very readable essay collection. Other than that, I won't repeat the strengths of the book that others have mentioned so I'm just sharing some notes. Each essay focuses on a different trauma in her life that related to one or more parts of her body, but also her whole self:
1. Alice, Collapsing - her spine, afflicted as a young girl with scoliosis
2.The Woman who Stayed Silent - her throat and her voicebox
3. High Risk - placenta, uterus, in high risk pregnancy
4. Mad Genius - head, affected by on-set explosions causing hearing problems etc.
5. Dissolving the Boundaries - face, affected by being recognized (and not) for a part she played in childhood
6. Run Towards the Danger - brain, affected by concussion
The most enjoyable essay was Dissolving the Boundaries as I loved reading about Prince Edward Island along with Polley's impressions of Road to Avonlea and Anne of Green Gables Fans. However, all of the essays are important and contain unexpected moments of humour amidst the various paths of overcoming trauma. It's amazing that Polley can turn her unusual amount of trauma into art, again, and this time in book form.
1. Alice, Collapsing - her spine, afflicted as a young girl with scoliosis
2.The Woman who Stayed Silent - her throat and her voicebox
3. High Risk - placenta, uterus, in high risk pregnancy
4. Mad Genius - head, affected by on-set explosions causing hearing problems etc.
5. Dissolving the Boundaries - face, affected by being recognized (and not) for a part she played in childhood
6. Run Towards the Danger - brain, affected by concussion
The most enjoyable essay was Dissolving the Boundaries as I loved reading about Prince Edward Island along with Polley's impressions of Road to Avonlea and Anne of Green Gables Fans. However, all of the essays are important and contain unexpected moments of humour amidst the various paths of overcoming trauma. It's amazing that Polley can turn her unusual amount of trauma into art, again, and this time in book form.