The Body Papers

By Grace Talusan,

Book cover of The Body Papers: A Memoir

Book description

Winner of The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, Grace Talusan’s critically acclaimed memoir The Body Papers, a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection, powerfully explores the fraught contours of her own life as a Filipino immigrant and survivor of cancer and childhood abuse.

Born in the Philippines, young…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Body Papers as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This memoir is one of the most compelling accounts of confronting trauma that I’ve ever read. In the case of the author, the traumas are multiple: fear of deportation due to her “illegal” status; years of sexual abuse by her paternal grandfather; and later in life, the discovery that she carries a gene that leaves her susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer. I was moved as I learned how Talusan found the wordsboth as a writer and as a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a romantic partner, and a citizen—to speak of these difficulties. Her writing about this…

From Beth's list on confronting trauma or loss.

There’s nothing flowery in Talusan’s writing (indeed, the prose is so lean, you’d think it ran a decathlon, ate half a grapefruit, and downed a shot of wheatgrass before landing on the page); the bald truths of her narrative cut unerringly, time and again, to the very heart of her trauma. This is a brave account of surviving childhood sexual abuse perpetrated by a revered family elder, and the Sisyphean task of unpacking the ensuing emotional baggage. This narrative serves as a public, shout-from-the-rooftops refusal to carry the shame for a crime someone else has committed.

From Christine's list on by women unapologetic about their hot mess.

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