Here is a quick description and cover image of book Autobiography of a Face written by Lucy Grealy which was published in. In her moving memoir, Autobiography of a Face, award-winning poet Lucy Grealy describes her life as a cancer victim who, at nine years old, has part of her jaw removed. While her mother praises her “for being so good,” Lucy’s repeated efforts to deny her need to engage with her emotions, and release her pain and fear through crying, leave her feeling “absolutely nothing” and “only a void” (137). Brief Summary of Book: Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy. Time after time, she fails to stop herself from crying before, near the end of her two and half years of treatment, she finally stops weeping during chemotherapy. One must never, under any circumstances, show fear and, prime directive above all, one must never, ever cry” (29-30). Autobiography of a Face by Ann Patchett 27,107 ratings, 3.97 average rating, 1,766 reviews Open Preview Autobiography of a Face Quotes Showing 1-30 of 30 Sometimes the briefest moments capture us, force us to take them in, and demand that we live the rest of our lives in reference to them. It took Lucy Grealy twenty years of living with a distorted self-image and more than thirty reconstructive procedures before she could come to terms with her appearance after childhood cancer and surgery that left her jaw disfigured. She develops this into the most important component of her adopted code of conduct, that “ne had to be good. This powerful memoir is about the premium we put on beauty and on a womans face in particular. Symbolically, this is highlighted by her attempts to not cry, with her again focusing on the time when she was “courageous and didn’t cry and thus was good” (21). Lucy accepts this and makes every effort to suppress her emotions when she is around her mother, remembering her “first visit to the emergency room” where she had “been praised as good for being brave” which she took as “a formula for gaining acceptance” (30). Unable to truly help her daughter, Lucy’s mother attempts to do so by telling her to be brave and encouraging her not to show pain or fear about her illness and medical treatment.

Autobiography of a face