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4.4 AVERAGE
4.4 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Sarah Polley's empathy is so, so deeply felt in each of her essays. Here are some quotes I loved (page numbers probably not quite accurate, as no edition on Storygraph has the same number of pages as my copy):
Somewhere around this time I was given a note by stage management saying that while I could play a note of sadness in saying goodbye to the White Knight, I needed to stop short of turning it into a tragedy. I tried to tone down the sadness. But I couldn't. I still can't.
Recently, when I described this moment in the play to my therapist and the scenes Dodgson's rejection by Alice in Dreamchild, I tried hard to talk about my anger at being made to feel sad for the grown man instead of the child, but all that came out of me was the sadness itself, a sadness so fierce I couldn't speak for my sobbing. My therapist said, quietly, "There is something tremendously sad about being a pedophile. To love a create you can't have. To know that that love is bad. To know that you are bad for having these feelings, even if you don't act on them. It is tremendously sad." (47-48).
I realized in that moment that she knew. She had heard what had happened to me and she also knew that I had not come forward to support her. I trembled as I told her my memories of what had happened. I tried to explain why I didn't come forward. I said: "I had two tiny children. I was told it would drag on for years, that it would destroy me, that I would come close to suicide."
She teared up and said, "I didn't get any of that advice. No one told me any of that. And that is exactly what did happen. And no one prepared me for that. I'm only happy for the women who didn't come forward. I know there are lots of them. If you need to hear from me that I'm cool with it, I am. It's okay." (97)
When I apologize for being overly sensitive, he puts out his arm to help me up to a sitting position and says, "I'd be far more sensitive. It's an unpleasant experience. Please don't ever apologize for having a reasonable response to something difficult." (110)
I am glad to know this story. Glad to know that she had fought for me, glad to know that she had tried to say no, glad to know that there were moments I didn't remember or wasn't aware of (perhaps many of them) when my parents hadn't fallen like dominoes in front of the challenge of protecting me. Even if it had been just that once, my mother had tried not to let me go. And even if this story she told (which I have no memory of) never really happened, she had at least felt the necessity to construct it. Perhaps that shouldn't count for much, but it does. (171-172)
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Great book! Not perfect, but really well done! I'm not sure I would have picked it up if I didn't work in the film industry in some way, but even if you don't, I still recommend reading this book.
It's an insightful, thought-provoking, and well-written book. It's short, too, so you can finish this book quite quickly.
It's an insightful, thought-provoking, and well-written book. It's short, too, so you can finish this book quite quickly.
"As long as it brings joy, as long as there is no one making money from it, as long as the experience is designed around the enjoyment of the children involved, and no one in charge has interests that are more important to them than that, you can act as much as you want to."
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cancer, Grief
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Loved it. Sarah has a remarkable ability to write about difficult things and criticize people involved without sounding bitter - rather, she seems fair and balanced. She has clearly thought a lot about the issues/events described in these essays. I hope she writes more.
It’s hard to review this collection of essays that is so personal and vulnerable; who am I to judge her? But on the writing and storytelling alone it is worth 5 stars. Some of the essays are stronger than others but overall an impressive collection about memory, trauma, womanhood and what it means to tell your own story.
4/ I thought this memoir (comprised of several long essays) was captivating, personal, and thought-provoking. I loved Polley's 2012 auto-documentary Stories We Tell in which she interrogated the theory of documentary and representation using her own family's web of tales as subject matter. It was smart and fresh, and much of the spirit behind it comes through here. Polley has led a particularly interesting artistic life -- from acclaimed child actor, to actor, director, writer, and documentarian; she bares much of herself (and her flaws) in these essays and builds an empathetic self-portrait through examination of six pivotal moments within her life.
My favorite essays were The Woman Who Stayed Silent, High Risk, Mad Genius, and Run Towards the Danger.
My favorite essays were The Woman Who Stayed Silent, High Risk, Mad Genius, and Run Towards the Danger.