Autobiography of a Face

By Lucy Grealy

Book Overview

A New York Times Notable Book

Grealy has turned her misfortune into a book that is engaging and engrossing, a story of grace as well as cruelty, and a demonstration of her own wit and style and class.--Washington Post Book World

"It is impossible to read Autobiography of a Face without having your consciousness raised forever." - Mirabella

In this celebrated memoir and exploration of identity, cancer transforms the author's face, childhood, and the rest of her life.

At age nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with a potentially terminal cancer. When she returned to school with a third of her jaw removed, she faced the cruel taunts of classmates. It took her twenty years of living with a distorted self-image and more than thirty years of reconstructive procedures before she could come to terms with her appearance. In this lyrical and strikingly candid memoir, Grealy tells her story of great suffering and remarkable strength without sentimentality and with considerable wit. She captures what it is like as a child and a young adult to be torn between two warring impulses: to feel that more than anything else we want to be loved for who we are, while wishing desperately and secretly to be perfect.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0544837398
• ISBN13: 9780544837393
• Release Date: September 2016
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Hard to process it all

When this book came out, it created a sensation, not just for the raw facts of Lucy Grealy's ordeal but even more for the lyrical, insightful point of view from which it was written. Diagnosed at 9 years of age with Ewing's sarcoma, a potentially fatal cancer that attacked her lower jaw, she underwent disfiguring surgery and horrific chemo and radiation that further distorted her appearance. She used, in this memoir, her experience as a springboard from which to soar into passionate examinations of the meaning of truth, beauty, genius, love - all those biggies - and she did it with stunning success. Her background as a poet shines through each paragraph of this seminal book. But. Then she died, and although her death was ruled accidental, it's clear she had been on a steady downward spiral through the last couple of years of her life. Ann Patchett's stunning and conflicted story of her 20-year friendship with Grealy (Truth and Beauty) uncovers the raw underbelly of Lucy Grealy's personality, her unending quest to be special, first, best, and most of all, lovable. To get a fuller picture, one that I feel still isn't quite complete, of this quixotic individual, it's imperative that readers of Grealy's book also read Patchett's.

Lovely, Courageous, Wise Woman Who Will Me Missed

January 15, 2003 I was devastated to hear of Lucy's recent passing. I hope she knew about the many fans that she had out there in readingland. I was one of them, and I also live with a severe disfigurement and have gone through numerous plastic surgeries and grew up going to the hospital every year and being tortured by peers for being "ugly". I read the book in my mid twenties and not only did this book teach and entertain me with the tons of wisdom she passed on to the reader, Lucy enchanted me with her wonderful sense of humor and sincere sweetness that comes through in the book. Lucy's deep insight into her pain and isolation is expresesd without cold detachment or over indulgence. I think those of us who actually live with cosmetic deformities can know the enormous amount of courage it took to write her memoir. Also, the book draws the reader into her world of her pains, joys, and discoveries of life in an effortless way without pity, drama-queen tactics, or sugary sap. Lucy was a true talent: a real writer who sucessfully tackled a highly complex subject with grace in a time when so much self-serving, simple garbage is published. This book is a real life lesson about adversity written with humor and strength. It has become a regular on high school reading syllabi for obvious reasons. In a time when our culture is addicted to and obsessed with physical beauty, Lucy was the voice of reason. Physical beauty fades (Has anyone seen Farrah Fawcett lately? Need I say more?) BUT marvelous books are forever cherished and this book will endure for generations to come. The world is a dimmer place without Lucy. Rest in peace, Lucy. I never met you but I read your book and admired you so much. Actually, it was my dream to meet you one day just to tell you that I loved your book. You will be so missed and will NEVER be forgotton.

The best true story I've ever read

I think about this book nearly every day, even though I read it several years ago. It has had a profound impact on my own life. It is a real-life story about a young girl growing up with jaw bone cancer and having to live with multiple surgeries and radiation to try to rid her jaw of cancer. During and after the disfiguring surgeries and radiation, she has difficulties adjusting to society's taunts and stares, beginning with her schoolmates and continuing with adults. There is no ugly duckling to beautiful swan transformation. It's just one girl trying to survive cancer and make it through a difficult life in this beauty obsessed world. This book is a must read for anyone who feels that their appearance makes them unacceptable. It is a story of great personal fortitude coming from a little girl whose family just isn't capable of dealing with the cancer and the emotional pain she must endure.

Understanding for the Young

I am twelve. We had to read an autobiography for an assignment in literature, I don't like that kind of book. When I emersed myself in this book I never imagined I wouldn't come up for air. I guess, as a twelve year old, I never understood the effects and after effects of camcer. I thought I would just read it and do the report. But I did not expect to finish the book and to look around a different way. I hope that I don't forget the lessons sealed inside this book, and that through my adolescents I realize beauty isn't everything. I recomend this book for older readers, it was easy to read but tough to understand. Though my understanding reached further than I ever thought possible. Read this Please!