Aloha, it’s TUESDAY books! This will become MONDAY books as of November 2!
The pick this week is THE BODY PAPERS by Grace Talusan. A first generation Filipina, Talusan is a woman of faith and intellect and heart, and the winner of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing. This is a beautiful and honest book of personal exploration and reckoning.
It is a very fast read—the prose is clear, the voice is steady and humbling. Her words are without pretense. Talusan’s strength is her ability to tell truths. This ferocity and vulnerability are rare qualities. They are the mark of a writer who SEES…writer as seer.
This is on my list of books to teach. Through spirit, family, definitions of womanhood, and her body we are witness to Talusan’s journey. This is a body that travels, bends, and transcends.
This body and mind do not break. Her triumph is ours.
I do not know a single woman who at one time or another, hasn’t been vexed by her body size or weight, who hasn’t felt vulnerable to assault (if not assaulted #metoo), who hasn’t felt that her body at one point in time, a source of shame or discomfort. The ONLY women I know who do not feel this have moved BEYOND it because they have faced the reality of what it means to have a woman’s body in this time period in history. In other words, the average woman is made to feel that her very physical self is in some way wrong, her body is a flawed body. Read this to understand how and why we feel this and learn how we might begin to feel.
This book describes with excruciating honesty what it means to understand your body and the body of those you love.
~teaching women the power of narrative~
Register for Women’s Creative Writing Workshop (5 weeks) at drstephaniehan.com starts 10/31.
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