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purplepenning's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Ableism, and Body shaming
Moderate: Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, and Chronic illness
Minor: Pregnancy and Toxic friendship
ashleyvharris's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
“If love is the name of the pursuit of the whole, what is the name given to finding it? I close my eyes and focus on the feeling of the world getting a little wider.”
I had never heard or read any of Chloé’s writing before Easy Beauty, but I think there’s nothing I want more in this moment than to sit with her and talk for hours. She writes in a way that makes me think I could be her friend, as if reading her memoir has somehow enlightened me to her uncensored, unedited personality.
Chloé’s memoir jumps around to different stories and vignettes of her life, some brief glimpses and others detailed adventures or conversations. Each one offers another piece of the puzzle, another step toward understanding. Standout passages include her trip to Cambodia, the Richard Serra exhibit, and the magic show in Prospect Park.
The beauty of this book is that it while it exposes the rawness of Chloé’s disability, it ultimately whittles us all down to the fears, faults, and difficult beauty we hold inside ourselves.
I really think Chloé expresses it perfectly in the final pages, “Beauty helped us be attentive to a world outside ourselves.” In a world where we are all so caught up in ourselves, our anxieties, our inadequacies, our fears… beauty allows us to step outside of that.
Reading Chloé’s words, I could feel my world getting a little wider.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming
Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
Minor: Pregnancy
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