Jennifer
Rating:
Review
When Lucy Grealy was nine years old, she was hit in the jaw playing Dodgeball and thought she broke her jaw. If only she could have been so lucky. Lucy ended up having a rare form of cancer in her jaw that left her with years of disfigurement, painful reconstructive surgeries, and a lifetime of feeling and looking different than everyone else. Peer rejection as a child, feeling self-conscious anywhere but the hospital, and re-learning what beauty means in a society where disfigurement is unacceptable all take a terrible toll on Lucy. This book is painful, honest, and makes one realize how lucky most of us really are to live a normal, healthy life.
Best Line:
“The journey back to my face was a long one.” Lucy’s journey took her whole life to find some semblance of peace within herself. This book is courageous and will leave you thinking about what is important in your life for weeks after finishing it.”
Kim
Rating:
Review
I don’t remember who told me about this book, because I have someone to thank. Ms. Grealy writes candidly about how her childhood and adult life was inexplicably changed by a cancer diagnosis at age 10. Beginning with her jaw being partially removed, she endured years of radiation and chemotherapy, only to graduate on to several reconstructive surgeries aimed at correcting her facial flaw. The author is tremendously honest about her thoughts and feelings, and I often wondered if her close friends knew how fortunate they were to have her in their lives. After reading this book, it was easy to count my blessings. Like Ms. Grealy, I was teased by boys in grade school (weren’t we all?), but I can’t image what torture the author went through at the hands of such cruel children. This is a must read.
Best Line:
In one of the lighter moments, and in response to the endless taunts by a certain clique of boys, “Much to their bewilderment and to the shock of my teachers, I retorted by calling out to them, “You stupid dildos.”.”
