Lucy Grealy wrote memoir and poetry about illness, appearance and the way a visible difference can reshape identity. Autobiography of a Face recounts childhood treatment for Ewing sarcoma in her jaw, the surgery and reconstructive procedures that followed, and years of being stared at or mocked because of the resulting facial difference. Grealy is especially attentive to the gap between surviving cancer and feeling able to live comfortably inside the face left by treatment. The memoir is reflective, unsentimental and sometimes sharply analytical about beauty, shame and the wish to become unremarkable. Her work sits within illness memoir, disability and disfigurement memoir, and literary autobiography. Autobiography of a Face is the central title for readers interested in how medical survival can create a second, less visible struggle around identity and social perception. Read more Less
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