This book is so unique, fascinating, beautiful, heartbreaking, traumatic, and real.
“I try to remember that my body is not really the sum of what‘s visible. Nothing that‘s wrong with me can be solved by rubbing cream on my skin.”
This book is so unique, fascinating, beautiful, heartbreaking, traumatic, and real.
“I try to remember that my body is not really the sum of what‘s visible. Nothing that‘s wrong with me can be solved by rubbing cream on my skin.”
Today I'm reading Elissa Washuta's memoir/essay collection, which I picked up after seeing her speak on a great panel about nontraditional nonfiction forms at AWP. This is an experimental book involving Native identity, mental illness, substance abuse, sexual assault, faith, Cosmo's terrible sex advice, and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. All in under 200 pages! (And because I hope people will find this book:) #NativeBooks #MentalHealthBooks
THIS BOOK. Such a dark and unflinching memoir. Elissa Washuta is brutally honest and matter-of-fact as she describes and dissects the ways in which her life has been shaped by her mixed-race identity, bipolar disorder, sexual assaults, eating disorder, Catholic identity, gender and our society. She also combines a lot of different formats and storytelling methods in such an engaging way. It's not the easiest read, but it is powerful and angry. 👏
"For years, I had kept that hair growing, as though it were an extension of my bloodstream and my Indian blood could increase as my ragged ends grasped for my waist."
‼️ ??
"And what of Delilah? She did it for money. As good a reason as any. Temptress, snake, bitch. Whatever. She got paid. She got out alive."
"NEVER HESITATE TO CALL UNIVERSITY POLICE, they said, but we all knew about what happened to kids who were honest with the people in charge about the severity of their problems: they were told to get the fuck out of college until they got their shit together."
??
Haven't even started chapter one and I'm hooked already. I can tell this one is going to be hard...
Ahhh this came in the mail today! Starting it despite the multiple books I have waiting on Overdrive. That title and cover tho - love it!