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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Breast Cancer Survival
Review of the Peirene Press paperback edition (October 4, 2022) translated by [a:Celia Hawkesworth|242237|Celia Hawkesworth|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] from the Bosnian language original [b:Kintsugi tijela|41639102|Kintsugi tijela|Senka Marić|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1535966711l/41639102._SY75_.jpg|64978656] (2018)
Body Kintsugi is Bosnian author Senka Maric's non-fiction novel about her harrowing journey through breast cancer and her path to survival. It is traumatic and does not make for easy reading. Along the way she endures several partial, then whole mastectomies, various prosthetic implantations and removals, infections and their aftermath, eventual hysterectomy and all the various chemotherapy required in between procedures. But there are moments of relief and of course you know that since the book exists, she will survive in the end.
Cover image of the original Bosnian language edition. Image sourced from Ampi Margini Literary Agency.
Inter-chapters have Maric remembering the days of her youth, her first terrors of menstruation, the comfort of her grandfather, the ordeals of her father's alcoholism and eventual sickness and death, her mother's own breast cancer survival. She hallucinates about being visited by women of mythology, Medea, Medusa and Amazon Queen Penthesilea. I don't know the tie-ins of the first two, but I remember from somewhere (was it a [a:Natalie Haynes|995841|Natalie Haynes|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1399479249p2/995841.jpg] book?) that Amazon mythology had them cutting off one of their own breasts, in order to better draw their bowstrings.
In terms of rating, the difficulty of the journey does not make for light recommendation. But the honesty and rawness make for a 5-star rating with the reservation that not everyone will necessarily be able to handle it.
I read Body Kintsugi through to my subscription to Peirene Press. Subscribers receive the publisher's books several weeks ahead of their official release date.
Other Reviews
Review by Eleanor Updegraff at Lunate.co.uk, October 7, 2022.
Review by Beth Wren at Forever on a Lilo, October 31, 2022.
Write-up at Ampi Margini Literary Agency, Undated 2022.
Review of the Peirene Press paperback edition (October 4, 2022) translated by [a:Celia Hawkesworth|242237|Celia Hawkesworth|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] from the Bosnian language original [b:Kintsugi tijela|41639102|Kintsugi tijela|Senka Marić|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1535966711l/41639102._SY75_.jpg|64978656] (2018)
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with liquid gold, to highlight and celebrate an object’s past. - from the book synopsis of Body Kintsugi
The anaesthetist is above your head. His face is anxious, vigilant, concentrated. Your life is in his hands. You'll fall asleep quickly, into a sleep that will enable the operation, which will go perfectly. Before you fall asleep, you look at him and say, 'You know that moment when Charlie Brown says to Snoopy: "We'll all die one day, Snoopy!" And Snoopy replies: "True, but all the other days we won't."
He looks at you in disbelief. His expression begins to change. You've already fallen asleep, but you're quite certain he's laughing. - excerpt from Body Kintsugi
Body Kintsugi is Bosnian author Senka Maric's non-fiction novel about her harrowing journey through breast cancer and her path to survival. It is traumatic and does not make for easy reading. Along the way she endures several partial, then whole mastectomies, various prosthetic implantations and removals, infections and their aftermath, eventual hysterectomy and all the various chemotherapy required in between procedures. But there are moments of relief and of course you know that since the book exists, she will survive in the end.
Cover image of the original Bosnian language edition. Image sourced from Ampi Margini Literary Agency.
Inter-chapters have Maric remembering the days of her youth, her first terrors of menstruation, the comfort of her grandfather, the ordeals of her father's alcoholism and eventual sickness and death, her mother's own breast cancer survival. She hallucinates about being visited by women of mythology, Medea, Medusa and Amazon Queen Penthesilea. I don't know the tie-ins of the first two, but I remember from somewhere (was it a [a:Natalie Haynes|995841|Natalie Haynes|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1399479249p2/995841.jpg] book?) that Amazon mythology had them cutting off one of their own breasts, in order to better draw their bowstrings.
In terms of rating, the difficulty of the journey does not make for light recommendation. But the honesty and rawness make for a 5-star rating with the reservation that not everyone will necessarily be able to handle it.
I read Body Kintsugi through to my subscription to Peirene Press. Subscribers receive the publisher's books several weeks ahead of their official release date.
Other Reviews
Review by Eleanor Updegraff at Lunate.co.uk, October 7, 2022.
Review by Beth Wren at Forever on a Lilo, October 31, 2022.
Write-up at Ampi Margini Literary Agency, Undated 2022.
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
sad
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Two months after her husband abandons her, an unnamed narrator finds a lump in her armpit. Facing down the news she's dreaded ever since her mother's breast cancer diagnosis years earlier, she begins down a road that changes the landscape of her body forever. But even a harrowing illness won't crush her drive for life.
This was an intimate, often uncomfortable, yet hopeful account of illness drawn from the author's own experience. The narration is in quick bursts of second-person sentences, making every crushing bit of news or small moment of joy feel visceral and immediate, a testament to the skilfull translation by Celia Hawkesworth. It's tightly focussed on the physical experience of illness; you're thrown right into the centre of a body breaking apart and being put back together.
Throughout her journey the narrator reflects on instances from her childhood where she learned to be ashamed of her sexuality and estranged from her body as a thing completely her own. Again the second person narration makes these moments so impactful: though the experiences themselves may differ, I think many will relate to those small moments that gradually teach shame, teach caution and unpleasant lessons in how women's bodies are perceived and controlled.
For such a slim book it manages to contain nuanced ideas about self-perception, gender, navigating ill health and the passage of time. I found the commentary around the physical body and gender especially well-expressed, yet authentic. The narrator is understandably attached to the parts of herself she's always been told make her a woman, even as she loses them to a series of life-saving operations, but also grows to understand her illness can't steal who she is away. This doesn't require impenetrable academic language to express - she knows herself to be a woman, whole and beautiful, and so she is.
A deeply personal book that manages to resist both sentimentalism and cold hopelessness with its unfussy prose, this is a powerful read I'd definitely recommend.
This was an intimate, often uncomfortable, yet hopeful account of illness drawn from the author's own experience. The narration is in quick bursts of second-person sentences, making every crushing bit of news or small moment of joy feel visceral and immediate, a testament to the skilfull translation by Celia Hawkesworth. It's tightly focussed on the physical experience of illness; you're thrown right into the centre of a body breaking apart and being put back together.
Throughout her journey the narrator reflects on instances from her childhood where she learned to be ashamed of her sexuality and estranged from her body as a thing completely her own. Again the second person narration makes these moments so impactful: though the experiences themselves may differ, I think many will relate to those small moments that gradually teach shame, teach caution and unpleasant lessons in how women's bodies are perceived and controlled.
For such a slim book it manages to contain nuanced ideas about self-perception, gender, navigating ill health and the passage of time. I found the commentary around the physical body and gender especially well-expressed, yet authentic. The narrator is understandably attached to the parts of herself she's always been told make her a woman, even as she loses them to a series of life-saving operations, but also grows to understand her illness can't steal who she is away. This doesn't require impenetrable academic language to express - she knows herself to be a woman, whole and beautiful, and so she is.
A deeply personal book that manages to resist both sentimentalism and cold hopelessness with its unfussy prose, this is a powerful read I'd definitely recommend.
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Just like a piece of ceramics that was broken and put back together, this short novel is told in small chapters with short and matter-of-fact sentences filled with beautiful language that evokes the feelings that the main character is experiencing as she learns that she has breast cancer and all the treatments that she must endure.
As someone who works in the cancer field, I always appreciate a book that can give me perspective on what patients are going through. This one does that and more! It also goes into themes of self-perception, self-love, identity, and perseverance. Ideas about gender and what womanhood means bloom from this book.
I'm quite surprised that even though it's only 165 pages long, there are nuanced and deep ideas about illness, womanhood, time, life, and death. I particularly loved the chapters where Amazon warriors come to her in dreams, beautiful, powerful, and thought inducing.
I'd highly recommend!
As someone who works in the cancer field, I always appreciate a book that can give me perspective on what patients are going through. This one does that and more! It also goes into themes of self-perception, self-love, identity, and perseverance. Ideas about gender and what womanhood means bloom from this book.
I'm quite surprised that even though it's only 165 pages long, there are nuanced and deep ideas about illness, womanhood, time, life, and death. I particularly loved the chapters where Amazon warriors come to her in dreams, beautiful, powerful, and thought inducing.
I'd highly recommend!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent