Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa FebosMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
AN INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Memoir meets craft masterclass in this “daring, honest, psychologically insightful” exploration of how we think and write about intimate experiences—“a must read for anybody shoving a pen across paper or staring into a screen or a past" (Mary Karr).
In this bold and exhilarating mix of memoir and master class, Melissa Febos tackles the emotional, psychological, and physical work of writing intimately while offering an utterly fresh examination of the storyteller’s life and the questions which run through it.
How might we go about capturing on the page the relationships that have formed us? How do we write about our bodies, their desires and traumas? What does it mean for an author’s way of writing, or living, to be dismissed as “navel-gazing”—or else hailed as “so brave, so raw”? And to whom, in the end, do our most intimate stories belong?
Drawing on her own path from aspiring writer to acclaimed author and writing professor—via addiction and recovery, sex work and Harvard night school—Melissa Febos has created a captivating guide to the writing life, and a brilliantly unusual exploration of subjectivity, privacy, and the power of divulgence. Candid and inspiring, Body Work will empower readers and writers alike, offering ideas—and occasional notes of caution—to anyone who has ever hoped to see themselves in a story.
Memoir meets craft masterclass in this “daring, honest, psychologically insightful” exploration of how we think and write about intimate experiences—“a must read for anybody shoving a pen across paper or staring into a screen or a past" (Mary Karr).
In this bold and exhilarating mix of memoir and master class, Melissa Febos tackles the emotional, psychological, and physical work of writing intimately while offering an utterly fresh examination of the storyteller’s life and the questions which run through it.
How might we go about capturing on the page the relationships that have formed us? How do we write about our bodies, their desires and traumas? What does it mean for an author’s way of writing, or living, to be dismissed as “navel-gazing”—or else hailed as “so brave, so raw”? And to whom, in the end, do our most intimate stories belong?
Drawing on her own path from aspiring writer to acclaimed author and writing professor—via addiction and recovery, sex work and Harvard night school—Melissa Febos has created a captivating guide to the writing life, and a brilliantly unusual exploration of subjectivity, privacy, and the power of divulgence. Candid and inspiring, Body Work will empower readers and writers alike, offering ideas—and occasional notes of caution—to anyone who has ever hoped to see themselves in a story.
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I came across this book on the reading list for the Contemporary Voices module in my MFA (a module I’m auditing). Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the lecture on this book, but as soon as I started Body Work, I grabbed a pencil because I knew I’d be annotating and underlining so much in this book.
Body Work is both a memoir and a book on writing memoir. Its essays explore feminism, patriarchy, trauma, shame, and the the healing power of writing—and all of this is done on a level I’ve never seen done before. This book was informative to read, for those writing memoir, intriguing and entertaining.
This is the first title from this author I’ve come across, but I immediately ordered two of her memoirs as she talks about her writing processes for them in this book, as she dismantles patriarchy and assesses why feminine narratives are seen as shameful so often.
Split into four sections, this book covers so much and offers thought-provoking topics. “In Praise of Navel-Gazing” encourages female writers to write their trauma unashamedly and to own their writing. “Mind Fuck: Writing Better Sex” gives advice on writing sex scenes but also encourages us to think about what sex is, especially when it’s always centered around hetero-normative constructs. “A big Shitty Party: Six Parables of Writing About Other People” documents Febos’s process as she considers who she’ll show early versions of her memoir to to check how they appear in the memoir and the importance of being kind. There’s tonnes of advice in here. And the final section, “The Return: The Art of Confession” is about trauma narratives and their healing power.
This book has so many wonderful lines on every page. I’ve never annotated a book so much and it made me critically think about my own memoirs I’m writing. I particularly appreciated the parts where Febos pointed out that we must recover all our memories to tell our stories in a complete way, including the memories we hid or blocked in order to survive.
There are thoughts about the personification of addiction and eating disorders, about abusive relationships, childhood, assault, and how writing is healing or can be. I feel I’m not doing this book justice in this review, but I highly recommend all memoir writers to read this.
View all my reviews
I came across this book on the reading list for the Contemporary Voices module in my MFA (a module I’m auditing). Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the lecture on this book, but as soon as I started Body Work, I grabbed a pencil because I knew I’d be annotating and underlining so much in this book.
Body Work is both a memoir and a book on writing memoir. Its essays explore feminism, patriarchy, trauma, shame, and the the healing power of writing—and all of this is done on a level I’ve never seen done before. This book was informative to read, for those writing memoir, intriguing and entertaining.
This is the first title from this author I’ve come across, but I immediately ordered two of her memoirs as she talks about her writing processes for them in this book, as she dismantles patriarchy and assesses why feminine narratives are seen as shameful so often.
Split into four sections, this book covers so much and offers thought-provoking topics. “In Praise of Navel-Gazing” encourages female writers to write their trauma unashamedly and to own their writing. “Mind Fuck: Writing Better Sex” gives advice on writing sex scenes but also encourages us to think about what sex is, especially when it’s always centered around hetero-normative constructs. “A big Shitty Party: Six Parables of Writing About Other People” documents Febos’s process as she considers who she’ll show early versions of her memoir to to check how they appear in the memoir and the importance of being kind. There’s tonnes of advice in here. And the final section, “The Return: The Art of Confession” is about trauma narratives and their healing power.
This book has so many wonderful lines on every page. I’ve never annotated a book so much and it made me critically think about my own memoirs I’m writing. I particularly appreciated the parts where Febos pointed out that we must recover all our memories to tell our stories in a complete way, including the memories we hid or blocked in order to survive.
There are thoughts about the personification of addiction and eating disorders, about abusive relationships, childhood, assault, and how writing is healing or can be. I feel I’m not doing this book justice in this review, but I highly recommend all memoir writers to read this.
View all my reviews
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