Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland

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caseythereader's review against another edition

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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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