A Body, Undone
Living On After Great Pain
Christina Crosby
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Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Recommended on the library website, ‘A Body, Undone: Living on After Great Pain,’ never promised to be an uplifting, inspirational book. And it isn’t, not by any stretch of the imagination.
Most books written after tragedy (in this case, Crosby became paralyzed in a bike riding accident) are about life before the accident, the accident that leads to paralysis, the struggle (presented with either extraordinary insight or humour) and then a contented and perhaps even ‘better’ life after the struggle.
Not here. No way.
Crosby, a professor of English and Gender, Feminist, and Sexuality studies, writes in great detail and with professorial flourish, about agonizing pain, betrayal of the bowels, and frustration with an atrophying body. Crosby, a soft butch lesbian, writes of how she is unused to being incorrectly misgendered by so many (welcome to the world of the not-so-soft butch lesbian), it’s worse as she is now very visible (as a person with a disability) and thus subject to patronizing misgendering and the inherently uncomfortable apology. “I no longer have a gender. Rather, I have a wheelchair.”
Crosby writes extensively of alienation of body, of sexuality, of sensation and that alienation can be overwhelming. Her intelligence is evidenced as she breaks down the intersectionality of race, wealth and personal care, for example, but the body the body is the alien.
Which frankly I am glad to read. I can’t tell you the number of times I have rolled my eyes or huffed under my breath when people throw out those pithy quotes, almost always out of context, simplified and misunderstood. Like Nietzsche’s quote, “That which does not destroy me makes me stronger” and Eleanor Roosevelt’s ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’
I think Crosby would call bullshit on these kinds of tropes.
I knew going in that this was not going to be a fun, light read. I rarely enjoy those kinds of books anyway. But even now, a few days after finishing the book, I can’t say I enjoyed this. It’s well-written, intelligent, insightful but… enjoyable? Nah. I don’t think it was ever intended to be.
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Details
| ISBN | 9781479833535 |
| Genre | Autobiography/Biography |
| Publication Date | 2016 |
| Publisher | New York University Press |
| Notes | Lambda Literary Award Finalist, Lesbian Memoir/Biography |
| LoC Classification | RC406.Q33 .C76 2016 |
| Language | English |
| Rating | Good |
| Subject | Authors, American – Biography; Feminists – Biography. – United States; Lesbians – Biography. – United States; Quadriplegia; Quadriplegics – Biography. – United States; Women College Teachers – Biography. – United States |
| BookID | 1390 |
