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4.4 AVERAGE
4.4 AVERAGE
I'm giving this four stars mainly based on the last half of the book, which I found profoundly moving and thought-provoking. I've never had a concussion, but I relate fully to the experience of trying to raise a young family while "losing your brain" to an invisible illness. She captures her struggle and subsequent recovery in a powerful way.
my interest in this memoir ebbed and flowed. polley has a unique way of writing that was grating at times and enjoyable at others. my biggest struggle reading this book was the inconsistent timeline. because the book consisted of only six essays, each one was pretty long, resulting in six unique stories that played out over several years. however, this led to a sort of whiplash that i struggled with. because the six stories take place over such a wide span of time, there's really no way to organize them chronologically, but the inclusion of ages (including those of her children) would make you realize how out-of-order everything was. in one story her children would be old enough to talk, in the next, they hadn't been born yet. in the following story, they'd be infants. same with polley. within one story, she'd be ten, then thirty. in the next story, she'd be a child again, until, in the story after that, she was an adult with kids of her own. all this made it hard for me to follow both the over-arching story of her life and each individual essay. the lack of a consistent timeline made for a very confusing feeling as a reader, and i felt yanked around and never quite got my footing, so i struggled to relate to or have empathy for her at times because she didn't feel quite like a real person. i appreciated polley's dives into child acting, motherhood, and what it is to be a woman (or girl) in the tv/movie industry, and her stories were compelling, even when i couldn't fully follow them. this was one of the more unique memoirs i have read.
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
reflective
Sarah Polley has a matter-of-fact way of relating the facts of her very intense life that makes them hit all the harder. I'm writing this review months later and I can still recall details from her stories. The first part of the book contrasts her vulnerability and toughness as a child star who was consistently failed by the adults who were supposed to protect her. The second part explores her long recovery from a head injury as an adult. Either of these topics would be sufficient for a great memoir, and in Polley's hands both storylines are spellbinding.
rlly interesting essay collection !! the last one (run towards the danger) helped my hypochondria in an odd way
I had really wanted to listen to the audio of this book, as it is read by the author. But my hold on a print copy came in first so I read it. It was so good, when the audiobook hold came in the day I returned the print copy, I listened to it again, this time in the author’s voice.
Sarah Polley was a child actor staring In movies like The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and the long running TV show Road to Avonlea. I saw her once in person at a premier at the Ontario Science Centre.
Polley has had much that she had to endure in life, including many unsafe and unethical situations as a child actor, losing her mother to cancer at a very young age, having scoliosis, being sexually assaulted as a teenager and deciding not to join the very public court case against her attacker and recovering from a complicated concussion.
Although our lives are very very different, it was interesting to read about her experience of growing up in Toronto at about the same age and her experience of being part of the pop culture of the time. I enjoyed hearing about her experiences as a mother and I very much look forward to her new movie of directing Miriam Towes’ women talking!!
Sarah Polley was a child actor staring In movies like The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and the long running TV show Road to Avonlea. I saw her once in person at a premier at the Ontario Science Centre.
Polley has had much that she had to endure in life, including many unsafe and unethical situations as a child actor, losing her mother to cancer at a very young age, having scoliosis, being sexually assaulted as a teenager and deciding not to join the very public court case against her attacker and recovering from a complicated concussion.
Although our lives are very very different, it was interesting to read about her experience of growing up in Toronto at about the same age and her experience of being part of the pop culture of the time. I enjoyed hearing about her experiences as a mother and I very much look forward to her new movie of directing Miriam Towes’ women talking!!
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced