The Rory Gilmore Book Club discussion

The November book is Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face.

I haven't been around here in a lonnngggg time but since I've actually read this book I thought I'd comment.

I read this after reading Truth and Beauty A Friendship by Anne Patchett where she details her friendship Lucy Grealy. I would definitely recommend reading Truth and Beauty too-it's interesting to take them together even if Lucy's family has voiced their displeasure at Anne's portrayal.

Reading this after while knowing about Lucy's eventual death (overdose-questionable suicide) was sad. Seeing how hard she fought for so long it was disheartening to know how things ended for her. I think her illness and it's lasting physical after effects really took a toll on her. Truth and Beauty makes her seem much more wounded and needy-maybe it's better to read this one and leave yourself with a more positive image!

This is what I said in my review:

This book is incredible.

About a hundred pages into the book, for no particular reason, I read the afterword by Ann Patchett. She talked about the author's frustration with the book being read purely as a cancer autobiography, because she had crafted it to be a work of art that said something timeless and not cancer specific about truth and beauty. And she accomplished that, brilliantly. She also said some very important things about cancer.

Forget pink and moustaches and ribbons. If you want to raise cancer awareness, go read this book and tell everyone you know to read it too.

I am too bogged down with schoolwork to get to this right now, but after I finish this semester I plan on reading it! Glad to know that it is one that I should keep on my "to read" list.

This is the first book club book I'm reading along with you guys. I'm only up to the third chapter, but I plan on catching up quickly.

In chapter 2, in the part where Lucy is being prepared for her cyst removal, instead of showing a clear separation between being pulled into sleep by the gas and waking up after the surgery, she blends the two scenes together, so that it seems like it all happened smoothly, without the surgery in between, and at the end, you realize that the operation is over. I just love how she depicted this. The whole scene was dreamlike and her portrayal allowed me to transport myself into the hospital, onto the hospital bed, and under the gas mask, looking up at the doctors.