I am having trouble writing my review for [Autobiography of a Face], by [[Lucy Grealy]], because I am so afraid I will not do it justice. This is a beautiful, brave and candid memoir of Lucy’s battle with cancer and subsequent multiple surgeries. It is not maudlin, but witty and insightful. I was afraid to read it, because I, too, grew up with lots of medical issues and I didn’t want to plumb those angry, fearful memories again. Did it touch upon those raw nerves? Yes, but just a touch. I found myself focused more intently on the beauty of her writing, and that would have made Grealy so happy. In the afterward, Lucy’s friend [[Ann Patchett]] explains that during her book readings, Lucy “was not there as a role model for overcoming obstacles. She was a serious writer, and she wanted her book to be judged for its literary merit and not its heartbreaking content.” Done! I loved it. Her voice is honest and lyric and her book is so much more than a medical diary. She delves inside the pain of being different, the secret desire to be perfect, and the ways in which our parents and circumstances shape (sometimes unwittingly) who we become.

One more point before I go. [[Patchett]] also wrote a book, entitled [Truth and Beauty] in which she shares Lucy’s life from her point of view as a friend in college and graduate school. Several people have said that they found it strange that Patchett is not mentioned in Grealy’s book. Not so much. Autobiography of a Face is centered far more on Lucy’s childhood and her family and Patchett entered the picture much later. I will say that I far prefer the character of Grealy in her own book, rather than the needy, sex-driven girl portrayed in Patchett’s book. An interesting contrast none-the-less. ( )

Lucy Grealy's memoir chronicles her experience surviving a childhood cancer that forced the removal of a large part of her jaw leaving her face severely disfigured. She helps us understand the experience of being "grotesquely" different, as both a child and an adult. In adulthood, she attends the writing program at Sarah Lawrence where she meets Ann Patchett (and the two become dear friends, a friendship that becomes the centerpoint of Patchett's stunning memoir, Truth and Beauty.)

Lucy goes on to attend the Iowa Writer's Workshop and the publication of this book brings her national writing acclaim. But it never solves the problem of the intense aloneness she feels in the world, wondering if anyone will ever truly love her, a hunger she can't manage to feed.

Honest and horrifying in parts. A brilliant memoir. ( )

Pretty good account of the life of a disfigured girl (from disease). ( )

Like many others, I read this book in tandem (well, six months after) with Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett. It was so interesting to read the story of a life from the perspective of both the person living it, and her best friend. Although the facts were the same, the tales were very different.

Lucy Grealy describes her battle with cancer and the repeated struggles to reconstruct her jaw. What was particularly difficult to read about was her solitude, self-induced and because of teasing and tormenting from her various peer groups. It came as something of a relief when she reached university and people became more accepting of her looks, in addition to the eccentric personality she began to cultivate.

Although this was a book full of emotions, I found it curiously lacking when compared to Patchett's book. Truth & Beauty painted Grealy as rather needy, and described this incredible friendship between the two authors, where Grealy never even mentioned Patchett in her autobiography. I have not read anything else of Grealy's, so I'm not sure if this is merely because of different writing styles, if she genuinely saw the friendship in different terms, or if this book was meant to focus so completely on her face that other details were purposely overlooked.

This was a fascinating book that describes the difficulties of cancer, combined with the problems coming of age with a very noticeable disfigurement, and details what steps Grealy took to overcome everything. However, it was strange to read after reading Truth & Beauty, in that I knew how her story would end when Grealy herself didn't. Grealy ended the book on a hopeful note, which was swiftly checked by the reality of Patchett's afterward. ( )

Read this after reading [book: Truth and Beauty] by Ann Patchett. These two books should be read as a pair. ( )