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rosalind's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Dementia, Terminal illness, and Medical content
Moderate: Death, Abortion, and Pregnancy
Minor: Misogyny, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, and Sexism
yilliun's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content and Cancer
Moderate: Pregnancy
I skipped certain parts due to graphic depictions of blood/ needleskairhone's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Abortion, Cancer, Dementia, Death, and Chronic illness
brogan7's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
This book is an amazing collection of essays. The first one absolutely blew me away, about the body, the girl body, the body in pain and an operation she had as a child to repair her essentially dissolving hip. The way she writes is so beautiful and at the same time incisive, truth-telling, down to earth. (Not that any of these are exclusive of one another.)
She writes about becoming a mother, parenthood, (2 different things), ghosts, an entire essay which is a riff on the McGill pain questionnaire, cancer treatments, blood, blood and art...and another beautiful piece about a family friend, a single Irish woman who defied the expectations of women in her generation and with whom Sinéad and her family developed a familial bond...and then Terry gets dementia. In "Twelve stories of bodily anatomy," she writes about abortion in Ireland, in "A wound gives off it's own light," she writes about artists and disability (Frida Kahlo, Lucy Grealy, and Ko Spence). She writes about women explorers and the constraints on women's lives that circumscribe their explorations.
It's a lovely wander of explorations, a chronicling of a life and thoughts and the politics of womanhood.
Not to be missed.
She writes about becoming a mother, parenthood, (2 different things), ghosts, an entire essay which is a riff on the McGill pain questionnaire, cancer treatments, blood, blood and art...and another beautiful piece about a family friend, a single Irish woman who defied the expectations of women in her generation and with whom Sinéad and her family developed a familial bond...and then Terry gets dementia. In "Twelve stories of bodily anatomy," she writes about abortion in Ireland, in "A wound gives off it's own light," she writes about artists and disability (Frida Kahlo, Lucy Grealy, and Ko Spence). She writes about women explorers and the constraints on women's lives that circumscribe their explorations.
It's a lovely wander of explorations, a chronicling of a life and thoughts and the politics of womanhood.
Not to be missed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer and Medical content
Moderate: Dementia
Does anyone else notice after a bit that the content warnings can sound kind of...anti progressive? As if I could warn you off a book by stating too clearly what it's about? When maybe the difficulties must be grappled with? Or like maybe the warnings are kind of appealing or titillating, "medical content, I love those books"--like they're all Lurlene McDaniel or something? I want a second list, of anti-trigger warnings, to focus exclusively on what a book is good for: anti-colonialism! Or: open-mindedness or: heart opening. If we trace collateral damage can we also trace collateral benefit? (I know what trigger warnings are for.) This book is helpful for the expansion of empathy.bella_cavicchi's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
3.5 stars. A mixed bag of essays, but the ones that succeed really sing. Gleeson writes with impressive subtlety and her commentary on women's bodies and the Irish healthcare system is astute.
Favorites, for record-keeping: Our Mutual Friend, Twelve Stories of Bodily Autonomy, and Second Mother (which made me cry!).
Favorites, for record-keeping: Our Mutual Friend, Twelve Stories of Bodily Autonomy, and Second Mother (which made me cry!).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Cancer and Blood
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