Because of bookcrossing, because I became aware that others want to read this book, I finally read it myself. I'd collected two copies. Both were unread for quite a while. I was a young-adult cancer patient so reading material like this can be hard going for me. In the first chapter I thought that the beautiful writing would make this memoir of illness easier to read. And I admired Lucy Grealy's incredible voice--but my own experience is awfully close still, even many, many years after my own treatment. I loved the brave little girl submitting herself to operations, radiation and chemotherapy but the frank descriptions of it all were very hard for me to bear. I managed to carry on, forgeting my personal experience as best I could. Grealy's work is astoundingly dignified and honest. She shares what happened without any self-pity. From the age of 9 until she was 14, she went through treatment for Ewing's Sarcoma, a usually fatal malignancy. Her cure required the removal of much of her jaw and this distorted her appearance. Soon afterwards as she began her quest for a new face, her family experienced terrible tragedy. Though Grealy was taunted and teased and she felt that she would never be loved, lively intelligence and fortitude led her to become a wonderful writer. This book was published when she was 31. Tragically, she died only eight years later of an accidental heroin overdose. The years of surgery nurtured an addiction to painkillers--and, one guesses, heroin. It is such a shame that she died so prematurely. I wish she were still writing. I am grateful that she left such a beautiful memoir.

This was a very significant read for me and I will look for a copy for my permanent bookshelf. Lucy's story taught me quite a lot about my reactions to life post-cancer and, more significantly, about my reactions to life as a woman of Lucy's generation. Most of all, I found AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FACE a feast of great writing. This copy touched both the Georgia Tech and Emory communities here in Atlanta. It was once a rental textbook I see from Barnes and Noble Georgia Tech and it wound up at Eagle Eye books in the Emory area, which is where I found it The afterword is edited from Ann Patchett's TRUTH AND BEAUTY (http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/13629475), a memoir of the fiction writer's friendship with Lucy. TRUTH AND BEAUTY is good. I am glad that I read it--but I did not esteem it nearly as much as I esteemed this book. I would advise waiting a good while to read Patchett's book after a reading AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FACE. Lucy's book is certainly the best and deserving of more attention. I wonder if this once belonged to a pre-med student at Tech who went on to study at Emory. It is interesting that this was a textbook.

Kindly sent to me by Cordelia-anne along with its companion read - Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett. Was mailed to me while I was a graduate student. Packed it up & took it with me to my new home in TX, where I hope to soon read it. My apologies for the delay in marking it as caught, but I’m thankful for this book & look forward to reading it!