Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

My Autobiography of Carson McCullers: A Memoir by Jenn Shapland

5 reviews

thepassivebookworm's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Suicide, Emotional abuse, and Alcoholism

mmtshali's review

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Domestic abuse and Mental illness

sjanke2's review

emotional informative reflective relaxing fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Outing, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

loz's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.75

 I bought this after reading an awful review in the garden. Rachel Cooke described it as "one note" and suggested that the focus on McCullers's sexuality was reductive. That's nonsense!

My Autobiography examines how queerness is warped and erased in the archive. Shepland challenges the heavy burden of proof that's placed on queerness. Her rejection of rigid definitions and heteronormative frameworks is deeply affirming. If you have any interest in memoir or biography as a genre, you'll get a lot from this book - even if lesbian history specifically isn't a major draw for you. If, however, it is, I think you'll appreciate the careful attention to how we express love, especially when we don't have the language or social circumstances to fully facilitate it. There was a detail about a ring that made me tear up (page 120, I think).

I was not surprised to see Carmen Maria Machado's endorsement on the cover - In the Dream House is similarly brilliant on these topics. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness

Minor: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

4.75

✨MINI REVIEW✨

While working as an intern in the archives at the Harry Ransom Center, Jenn Shapland encounters the love letters of Carson McCullers and a woman named Annemarie―letters are that are tender, intimate, and unabashed in their feelings. Shapland recognizes herself in the letters’ language―but does not see Carson as history has portrayed her. (via Goodreads) 📚

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What I liked:

📚 Genre-bending memoir is one of my favorite types of book

📚 Thoughtful examination of how we make women prove they're gay in a way we don't make men

📚 Looks at McCullers’ chronic pain and illness and how that intersected with her relationships

📚 How many queer women of history might be hiding in plain sight and we refuse to see them?

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What I didn't like:

📚 The author seemed unable or unwilling to identify McCullers' husband as an abuser. There's a lot of pained ruminating on why she didn't leave him when she was clearly uninterested in him romantically, but frames his repeated threats of murder-suicide as "a cloud over her life" rather than "emotional abuse."

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Content warnings: homophobia, domestic abuse, attempted suicide, suicide, institutionalization, chronic illness. 📚

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Chronic illness