A review by booksandcoffeerequired
The Body Papers: A Memoir by Grace Talusan

5.0

I had this one checked out since pre-quarantine in March, and even though it took me until it was due back at the end of June to read it, I’m SO GLAD I did. After reading an interview Grace did awhile ago with her cousin Meredith for Bitch Media back at the beginning of the year, I knew I had to read this book. The memoir focuses on the sexual abuse she suffered as a child from her grandfather, and the trauma it instilled, as well as living with a family history of both violence and illness and how that has impacted her own life, as well as the racism she has dealt with from childhood as a Filipino immigrant. Her writing is so beautiful and eye opening to her lived experiences, and I felt myself transported back in time to each moment she discusses, and felt very physical and emotional pain she dealt with throughout her journey to become whole again. Her story is one of how generational trauma can swallow a family whole, unless the new generation works to heal the wounds inflicted upon their forefathers and mothers and repeated through them. It’s such an important subject, and Talusan makes it wholly hers, showing the strength and bravery, but also the tenderness and vulnerability, she has cultivated to come through the other side, not unscathed, but broken and beautiful.