Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
236 pages
Finished 1/16/08













I had a really hard time getting into and then through this book. It is an autobiography (really?!) of a woman who had cancer when she was a child. As a result of that cancer, she had to have part of her jaw removed, leaving her disfigured.

The first thing that bothered me is that I wasn't a huge fan of the author's writing style. I know what she was going for with the visualizations, etc, but it just seemed like she was trying too hard. That wasn't the biggest thing that bothered me, though. The whole time I was reading it, I was annoyed by the lack of family relationships that were mentioned. She talked some about her father and her mother, but her twin sister was barely mentioned. It just felt there was this huge aspect of her life that was missing while reading the book.

I did find the afterword written by author Ann Patchett really interesting - it really shed some light on Grealy and her thoughts behind the writing of this memoir.

Two and a half stars.

Also, is it bad that every time I see the book, I kept thinking "So's your face!" (an insult from Scrubs) and then will usually start singing Billy Idol's "Eyes Without a Face"?