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tessatumyol's review
4.0
Part travel journal, philosophical musings and vulnerable glimpses, Easy Beauty is Chloe Cooper Jones’ rebellion against a world where the standard for beauty is one-dimensional and narrow. This piercing and blunt memoir will not comfort you, it will challenge you and your perception of beauty in our culture.
Jones doesn’t shy away from heavy topics, instead, she meets them head-on, looks them straight in the face, and offers up her own brave soliloquies. She explores the concept of beauty and what it means to be beautiful, and how someone or something can be considered beautiful without conforming to beauty standards. Her exploration of beauty is laid out thoughtfully as she takes an impromptu trip to Italy, and her thoughts on her body are put on display as she parcels through Greek mythology, the human form, architecture, community, belonging and so much more.
When I first began this, I was close to putting it down b/c it made me uncomfortable but that itself was a reason to push on. I am glad to have seen the world through Jones’ eyes just for a moment.
Her memoir is chockfull of revelatory reflections but at times it did feel like wading through high waters where I felt lost and a little confused. I will admit that a lot of the philosophical musings went above my head, but I could still appreciate Chloe’s astuteness and clear wisdom on the subjects she spoke about.
If you’re in the mood for a thought-provoking, culturally challenging and eye-opening read then Easy Beauty should be next on your list. This is a heavy read but it’s so very important. I look forward to rereading this for years to come.
“Difficult beauty simply gives you too much at one moment, of what you are perfectly capable to enjoy if only you could take it all in. The ability to perceive and appreciate truly complex beauty requires a willingness to process it slowly, bit by bit. We must not demand it make itself apparent all at once.” - Bosanquet, as quoted by Cooper Jones
Jones doesn’t shy away from heavy topics, instead, she meets them head-on, looks them straight in the face, and offers up her own brave soliloquies. She explores the concept of beauty and what it means to be beautiful, and how someone or something can be considered beautiful without conforming to beauty standards. Her exploration of beauty is laid out thoughtfully as she takes an impromptu trip to Italy, and her thoughts on her body are put on display as she parcels through Greek mythology, the human form, architecture, community, belonging and so much more.
When I first began this, I was close to putting it down b/c it made me uncomfortable but that itself was a reason to push on. I am glad to have seen the world through Jones’ eyes just for a moment.
Her memoir is chockfull of revelatory reflections but at times it did feel like wading through high waters where I felt lost and a little confused. I will admit that a lot of the philosophical musings went above my head, but I could still appreciate Chloe’s astuteness and clear wisdom on the subjects she spoke about.
If you’re in the mood for a thought-provoking, culturally challenging and eye-opening read then Easy Beauty should be next on your list. This is a heavy read but it’s so very important. I look forward to rereading this for years to come.
“Difficult beauty simply gives you too much at one moment, of what you are perfectly capable to enjoy if only you could take it all in. The ability to perceive and appreciate truly complex beauty requires a willingness to process it slowly, bit by bit. We must not demand it make itself apparent all at once.” - Bosanquet, as quoted by Cooper Jones
bridgetwalsh's review
4.0
“I’d wished for beauty to be a single, pure feeling ringing through me clearly, undeniably, creating truth, shining a beam so strong that it illuminated the entirety of my life. But what had come instead was a dense and drifting pile that carried with it a challenge: could I see the salient thing?… We'd not been given perfection, not godliness, not symmetry, not gracious measurement, not a bad hand, nor a curse; we'd not been given anything other than a life to spend together; our lives, not easy or free from pain; we'd been given only a real life, dreadfully normal and sublime, and I would no longer betray its beauty by wishing it otherwise.”
booksthatfeellike's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Absolutely loved this, especially the way that Cooper Jones is able to keep the narration on that razor-thin line between naming the painful things that she has experienced and naming the times she has caused pain to others. A capacious, intelligent, travelogue AND I loved the way it made me think about how I can travel in a chronically ill body.
s_jw's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
This book will stick with me in a way that I think will make me more understanding of humanity. Absolutely amazing if you loved Jenny Slates Little weird.