A review by catbrigand
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy

3.0

I’ve thought a lot about this book since I read it, especially since finding an op-ed by her older sister Suellen about this book, Ann Patchett’s memoir, and public grief. This book is not pleasant. It may shock you to know that a book about childhood cancer is unpleasant. But it’s also wholly inappropriate to examine motives and situations through only one lens—my copy of the book had reading guide questions about Lucy’s mother’s fitness, as if we in our healthy 21st century lives can make a judgment call about a woman presented through her daughter’s eyes.