Autobiography of a Face: Summary and book reviews of Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy, plus links to an excerpt from Autobiography of a Face and a biography of Lucy Grealy.

I spent five years of my life being treated for cancer, but since then I've spent fifteen years being treated for nothing other than looking different from everyone else. It was the pain from that, from feeling ugly, that I always viewed as the great tragedy of my life. The fact that I had cancer seemed minor in comparison." 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. In this strikingly candid memoir, Grealy tells her story of great suffering and remarkable strength without sentimentality and with considerable wit. Vividly portraying the pain of peer rejection and the guilty pleasures of wanting to be special, Grealy captures with unique insight what it is like as a child and 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.

Media Reviews

New York Times Book Review Despite its unblinking stare at an excruciatingly painful subject, this is not a dour book. Autobiography of a Face is a book about image, about the tyranny of the image of a beautiful - or even pleasingly average - face. In the end, this tyranny is not so much overthrown as shrugged off.   Washington Post Book World Grealy has turned her misfortune into a book that is engaging and engrossing, a story of grace as well as cruelty.   Kirkus Reviews A gracefully written account of one woman's physical and spiritual struggle to surmount childhood cancer, permanent disfigurement, and, ultimately, 'the deep bottomless grief...called ugliness.' An unsentimental, honest, unflinching look at a single visage reflected (or distorted) in an unforgiving cultural mirror. A strong debut.   Publishers Weekly Her discovery that true beauty lies within makes this a wise and healing book.   Library Journal - Wilder Williams Grealy writes with a poet's lyric grace, but her account of her endless quest for beauty at times becomes repetitious; the most moving part of her memoir comes in her depiction of chemotherapy's agonies and the unintentional cruelty of parents telling their suffering child not to cry. For all collections.   Booklist - Donna Seaman It's no surprise Grealy is a tremendously powerful writer: she saved her own life by telling herself stories to live by. Now she'll change our lives by sharing them.

Recent Reader Reviews

Rated of 5 by Jeriah Smith
Autobiography of a face
I'm a freshman in English 1 and our class had to read the book and it's a very true story and every one should read this.

Rated of 5 by jashawna perry
summary
This book was about a women named Lucy Grealy. When she was nine years old and had a very bad cancer called Ewing sarcoma. When she grew up she was taunted by all her classmates and people who really didn't even know her at all so she went through...   Read More

Rated of 5 by ERIC bISHOP
Eric
I think autobiography of a face is very interesting. A child that finds out that she has cancer and has to continue life with a disfigured face is something scary that you have to deal with and think about a lot. Living as a women that has to go...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Hiral
Life about Growing up
This is an outstanding memoir of cancer survivor from age 9 through adulthood and how she dealt with her disfigurement after having half her jaw removed. Very well told. Now I need to find Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchet, the epilogue to this story...   Read More

Rated of 5 by English Student
Great Book
I am a sophomore English student and we had to read this book for class - I really enjoyed it - it's a book everyone needs to read

Rated of 5 by Madison Hull
Awesome
This book was one of the best books I've read. Everyone should read this book.

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