Autobiography of a Face

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Summary: Much more than a medical history
Review: I found this a truly astonishing book. Grealy manages to convey the horrific agonies she went through -- first as a cancer patient, and then as an adolescent and young adult trying to cope with the results -- in clear, straightforward, non-whiny prose. Although she had plenty of reasons to feel sorry for herself, she writes about her painful experiences not as an end in themselves but as a springboard to considering larger issues: family love and the unconscious damage it often does; how we summarily judge others on the basis of their looks (and how "unattractive" people learn how to devalue themselves); and how such judgments form (or deform) a growing person's sense of self. What most impressed me was her lack of self-centeredness: for example, even as she's undergoing the agonies of chemotherapy, and feeling inadequate because she cries when her mother urges her not to, she realizes momentarily that her mother is suffering almost as much as she is. ! ! I kept being reminded of the Buddhist concept of the Bodhisattva: someone who, out of compassion, comes to earth and suffers so as to raise humanity to a higher level of awareness. This is a book with resonances far beyond one woman's life story, and I recommend it without reservation.

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Summary: pretty good
Review: I felt sorry for Lucy but she made it and atleast she had a loving family and money for the costly operations.

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Summary: Autobiography of a Face was brilliantly written.
Review: I loved this book and it would be my first recommendation to anyone. The straightforward, blunt approach to writing makes the book and emotional stimulant. The trial and turmoil Lucy Grealy endures makes you appreciate your life, no matter how bad you think it is.

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Summary: Thank you Lucy Grealy.
Review: I would recommend this book to every young adult. I found this book to be extremely emotional. Lucy Grealy's true life story taught me a lesson about life. I found sharing one's most difficult and unforgettable life's experience with an unknown audience to be both heroic and educational. I wish everyone could read this book before they were born, so that we all could understand that our hearts are but our faces.

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Summary: One of the best books I've read
Review: Lucy Grealy wites easily and movingly of a terrible period in her life. Throughout the book, one sees how Ms. Grealy matured because of her cancer and the reactions of family and friends. Even though she feels sorry for herself and her situation, this is an uplifting book because of the way Ms. Grealy describes her life. I highly recommend it.

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Summary: Writing style unlike any other
Review: A good author is one who connects her words and ideas in a way no one else does, and that's why this book is so great. It's not a big soul-searching, why-did-this-happen-to-me story like most illness books. It's a matter-of-fact story presented in a way that you see her situation as truly unique because of the way she views it. It's really, really good - the best I've read all year - and I work at a library

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Summary: Beautiful, funny, uplifting
Review: An extremely talented writer. A wonderfully moving, inspiring book. This book is uplifting and funny. I've purchased it many times, just to give away to one more friend who hasn't read it. The book offers, what I believe to be, an important insight into physical beauty and growing up without it. Thanks, Lucy

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Summary: Required Reading for Humanity
Review: Lucy Grealy's story of how she lived her life after contracting cancer at a young age, requiring disfiguring surgery to remove a tumor from her jaw, and then undergoing numerous plastic surgeries to make her "right" again is beautifully written and revealing. She does not dwell on how the cruelties of others affected her, but rather puts forth a clear picture of how she approached each new surgery as the solution that would allow her to start living. The recurring theme of "putting off her life" until she is "right again" reveals the tragedy in our society's tacit requirement that we all be beautiful, thin etc... The tragedy is not that we are teased or stared at by the ignorant, but that not living up to this "standard" results in our postponing happiness until we feel we've met the standard. As the child of a parent who suffered a disfiguring injury as a child, and who lived an experience strikingly similar to Ms. Greely's, this book was particularly meaningful to me; allowing me a glimpse into the existence that shaped my own father.

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Summary: Enlightenment through beautiful proxe
Review: I just finished Autobiography of a Face and I found it just a beautiful, touching read. Lucy writes with such incredible introspection and heartfelt feeling that one must stop from time to time to just reflect on her insight. I truly wondered where she got the strength to endure all that she did. I felt her emptiness in situations and yet her strength inspite of it. Her mother just seemed to totally not get the whole experience or at least couldn't deal with it, so Lucy was left to her own devices. The insight into the boy she meets in the hospital who is paralyzed after a diving accident just blew me away. She writes, "I did it for him. I'd close my eyes to feel the height, see the bright blue of the pool winking below me, bend my legs, and feel the pull in my calves as I jumped up and then down, falling from one world of unknowing into the next one of perpetual regret." What a gut-wrenching insight into the soul of this young man. She allowed me to view the world from a whole new perspective and I thank her wherever she may be. She was definitely an old soul who hopefully fulfilled her karma.

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Summary: Amazing!,
Review: <br />This is a great book for anyone who has struggled with their appearance in a world full of beautiful people. A must-read!!! Other remarkable books to read are: Nightmares Echo by Katlyn Stewart and If I Knew Then by Amy Fisher