Autobiography of a Face

by Lucy Grealy | Biographies & Memoirs |
ISBN: 0060569662 Global Overview for this book
Registered by kikimasu of Portland, Oregon USA on 6/14/2003
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9 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by kikimasu from Portland, Oregon USA on Saturday, June 14, 2003
Powerful and sad. She describes what it was like to be diagnosed with jaw cancer and to have to grow up with a disfigured face and numerous surgeries. No self-pity. Just telling things the way she saw them.

Released on Saturday, June 21, 2003 at fellow BookCrosser in USPS, postal release USA.

Going out to idioteqnician. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 3 by idioteqnician from Manchester, Greater Manchester United Kingdom on Friday, June 27, 2003
You know your book has come from a reliable source when they send it accompanied by a bell hooks postcard! Thanks so much, kikimasu! My goal is to have read this book by the end of the summer.

Journal Entry 4 by idioteqnician from Manchester, Greater Manchester United Kingdom on Saturday, July 19, 2003
I thought this book would focus on concepts of physical beauty, but it focuses more on concepts of self. Grealy's story is moving and it would be difficult to read if she hadn't written it in such a straight-forward way. I think that's an asset as it allows us to listen to what she is saying about what she has learned in life rather than dwelling on her misfortunes. I appreciated what she had to say about how she would react to life's misfortunes with either a sense of nobility or a sense of catastrophy, but that, in the end, neither was very true to herself or to reality.

I did wonder at the end of this book, if Grealy had truly been able to accept herself. She certainly came to understand herself, but I felt sad at the end that she may have still been unable to love herself. I read that she died in 2002 and that seems especially sad.

Journal Entry 5 by idioteqnician from Manchester, Greater Manchester United Kingdom on Thursday, July 24, 2003
I lent this book to my Granny last week and she just gave it back to me this morning. Granny is unlikely to sign up for BookCrossing so I just thought I'd post her comments. She seemed to read it quite quickly and said she was determined to finish it even though she prefers books with a more positive outlook. She felt a lot of compassion for Lucy and admired what an intelligent and strong child she must have been. Granny was surprised that Lucy described her treatment by the boys at school as "teasing". Granny thought it was cruel and wondered why no authority figures intervened to help the boys understand Lucy's situation. Granny was surprised by the ending, which she found ambiguous and not very inspiring, especially, she said, because Lucy seems to express a lot of hope in addition to grief throughout her 30+ operations. Granny was disappointed at the very end, when Lucy finally looks at herself in a reflective glass after avoiding her face for over a year. Granny wanted to know what Lucy thought and felt at long last, but instead the story is left quite open-ended. Ultimately, Granny wanted to hear that Lucy finally embraced herself and accepted her face. I suggested that while that would likely be the ending if the book were fiction, the ending of Lucy's story seems to more closely reflect the complexity of her lived-in reality. We both wondered if the ending was meant to imply that, even if she hadn't accepted and made ammends with herself, she had at least accepted and made ammends with the truth of the life she found herself living. I got the sense that Granny appreciated the increased understanding she gained from the book, but wasn't comfortable with the idea of Lucy continuing to live her life in sadness.

Journal Entry 6 by idioteqnician at -- Controlled Release in Calgary, Alberta Canada on Monday, August 4, 2003
Released on Monday, August 04, 2003 at controlled release in Calgary, Alberta Canada.

I sent this book off to another BookCrosser. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 7 by mmz18407 from Towson, Maryland USA on Sunday, August 17, 2003
Thank you so much! I've wanted to read this for so long! I'm sure I'll enjoy it as much as you and grammy. I'll journal and let you know, and offer it to other BCers when finished...merci!

Journal Entry 8 by busybooklover on Friday, November 14, 2003
This looks like a won't be able to put it down book. Narrative of a painful journey. I am eager to read-- but will wait until I am in the right mindset for this certain genre-- I skimmed over reviews quickly not wanting to read too much of what happens-- I will read and release or trade. Thanks also mmz18107 for the cool postcard of Johns Hopkins-- No shortage of bricks in THAT neighborhood! (LOL)

Journal Entry 9 by busybooklover on Tuesday, March 22, 2005
I was finally in a frame of mind to sit down with this book and I was pleasantly surprised at the resilliancy of this amazing woman's spirit. To keep searching for the meaning and staying so strong and stoic -- and if not for a moment-- intensely honest about it. I was so touched by the truths that her journey revealed and by her remarkable tenacity... especially througout what is such an emotionally volatile period, (Young adult/adolescence). *I decided to ring this book so others can enjoy... when it finally comes cback my way my sister wanted to read it... so I will then pass it her way.*
first going to:

geishabird CANADA
dodau UK
fizzfred US, CA (SH- US)
tuff517 US, TX
jamieh2003 US, VA


bookwise US, CA


Journal Entry 10 by busybooklover at on Friday, April 1, 2005

Released 19 yrs ago (4/1/2005 UTC) at

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Mailed to first in ring...Happy travels little book!

Journal Entry 11 by geishabird from Toronto, Ontario Canada on Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Book has arrived safely at its next port-of-call...thanks, bbl! I heard about this book about a year ago, jotted down the title, and promptly forgot about it...until I saw that this ring was being started, and remembered that this was a story I'd wanted to read. I shall start this tomorrow, when I finish my current book, and post my comments very soon...

Journal Entry 12 by geishabird from Toronto, Ontario Canada on Monday, April 11, 2005
What a sad, strange, affecting book this is. Refreshingly blunt, it does not, as previous journallers have noted, give a nice tidy ending in which the writer learns to accept herself the way she is. This is oddly satisfying, for very few of us are able to do such a thing without experiencing Lucy's hardships; why should she have miraculously overcome her pain and hardship and crippling depression and done it? Lucy emerges as nothing but intensely human in this memoir, and this is her great achievement.

I found the most interesting aspect of the book to be Lucy's (erroneous, she finally realizes) belief that her face equals her fate; one of her early epiphanies is when "for the very first time I definitively identified the source of my unhappiness as being ugly." She essentially uses her disfigurement as an enabler, as her reason to retreat from a frightening world (although, admittedly, her disease initially triggers her fear), and when suddenly the treatments and surgeries are at an end, she is confused and bewildered to find herself essentially the same person she was before: "Wasn't my fear just supposed to fall away...wasn't life supposed to work now? Where was all that relief and freedom that I thought came with beauty?"

This is what so many of us do. The new job, the new paycheque, the right partner, the lost weight...all these magical things that we tell ourselves will mark the next stage of our lives, the "real" lives. And yet, so often when these goals are achieved, we are surprised to find out that we are still the same people. Lucy writes, "...without my image, without the framework of 'when my face gets fixed, then I'll start living' I felt there was something empty about me."

Lucy's clinical depression is quite obvious during the narrative, and there are faint indications of the future drug addiction which (accidentally or not; it depends who you ask, it seems) ended her life at the age of 39. There's a tremendous irony working here: Lucy's innumerable surgeries apparently lead to her later drug problems, and so, although in "Autobiography Of A Face" Lucy beats her cancer, in the end, it does seem to have indirectly, at least, taken her life anyway.

Click here for an interesting article written last year by Lucy's elder sister.

Journal Entry 13 by geishabird from Toronto, Ontario Canada on Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Mailed today to dodau - enjoy!

Journal Entry 14 by dodau from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, April 19, 2005
One of four received this morning. I have some serious reading ahead of me but will have this out within a month.

Journal Entry 15 by dodau from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire United Kingdom on Monday, May 9, 2005
I really enjoyed the first half of this book. The courage she showed both as a child and into her teens was amazing. To not only carry on going to school but to then get a job which involved working with children, the cruelest group of people. But halway through it seemed to run out of steam. Maybe I should have tried to read it in one sitting as putting it down and coming back to it, it seemed to lose my interest. It just seemed to be more of the same, operations and a brief period of normality in between. I thought she was incredibly unlucky when all the grafts failed to take, and the treatment the first doctor wanted to do to rebuild her face was barbaric but you can't help wondering if it would have worked. Like some of the others have said it seemed to have no proper ending. It just stopped. But the saddest thing to me was that in her author picture I thought she looked pretty, lopsided face or not. I hope she came to realise that.

Released 18 yrs ago (5/10/2005 UTC) at To the next participant in Bookring/Bookray, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- Canada

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Journal Entry 17 by fizzfred from Sacramento, California USA on Thursday, June 16, 2005
This book came in the mail today, thanks dodau. I am in the middle of another book but will get to this next week.

Journal Entry 18 by fizzfred from Sacramento, California USA on Monday, June 27, 2005
Thanks for ringing this book, busybooklover. I don't know if I can add anything to what the other journalers haven't already said. :) This sure was a compellling story of a strong but obviously depressed woman. I wish I had read it before she died. Knowing that she couldn't cope makes this story even more sad.

The article by Lucy's sister was very enlightening. Thank you for sharing it with us, geishabird. I was planning on reading Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett next but now I feel a little guilty about that.

I sent this to tuff517 today. Enjoy!

7/1/05 Now that I've thought about this a little, I just wanted to add a couple observations. First of all I found Ann Patchett's New York article here. Let me know if any of you would like to read Truth & Beauty.

And secondly I can't help wondering what Lucy looked like after all the cancer treatments were finished. Was her face THAT bad? How necessary was all of that reconstructive surgery? It is really a sad commentary on society that instead of rejoicing over the fact that she survived a very deadly form of cancer, everyone seemed to focus on fixing her face. I cannot imagine the pain she must have endured to try to acheive that, physical AND emotional.

Journal Entry 19 by tuff517 from Elk Grove Village, Illinois USA on Thursday, June 30, 2005
Received this today, will start right away!

Journal Entry 20 by tuff517 from Elk Grove Village, Illinois USA on Saturday, July 9, 2005
Fascinating book. In high school I was picked on too, called "Rhino" and had everything from my hair to my clothes, my teeth, you name it, picked on - so in that I can relate to Lucy Grealy's pain through her school years. But I can't imagine going through such an ordeal at a young age and pondering the things she thought about then. I admire her for not really giving in to self-pity when it would be easy to do so. Well written and not overwhelming with medical jargon, this was a book from her heart. Thanks so much for sharing. Next is jamieh2003, will send when I get her address.

Journal Entry 21 by tuff517 from Elk Grove Village, Illinois USA on Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Heading off to busybooklover to give to bookwise. Thanks!

Journal Entry 22 by busybooklover at Old California Coffee House in San Marcos, California USA on Sunday, August 14, 2005

Released 18 yrs ago (8/13/2005 UTC) at Old California Coffee House in San Marcos, California USA

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left this with girl behind counter to pass on to OLD CAL COFFEEHOUSE ( with a post-it note attn: to owner--I thought she might like to read this one before putting it on shelves) =) if not... I'm sure it will find it's way onto the shelves there.

Journal Entry 23 by OldCalCoffee from San Marcos, California USA on Wednesday, August 17, 2005
This is my first catch!! I am so excited! Actually it was left on my desk so I didn't have to do much catching.
I have heard of this book and seen the author on a talk show--I'm looking forward to reading it.
Thanks Mary!


Journal Entry 24 by OldCalCoffee from San Marcos, California USA on Saturday, August 20, 2005
I found this book very moving. I normally don't seek out autobiographies of someone's personl tragedy, even though every time I have read one, I've been touched by the strength, humor, and insight of the author. This is no different. She has written her story so beautifully and I am not surprised to find she was a poet. I had read the previous journal entries, and I understand that she died a couple of years ago. Like another journaler wrote, I thought that added to the sadness--I really wanted to believe that she found peace in her life and that there was a happy ending. I guess that makes her story all the more powerful because there was no Hollywood ending.

Journal Entry 25 by OldCalCoffee from San Marcos, California USA on Monday, September 12, 2005
I'm going to give this book to a friend and then either she or I will set it free.

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