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Smile
- Author
- Sarah Ruhl
- Narrator
- Sarah Ruhl
- Publisher
- Random House
- Publish Date
- 20 January 2022
- Run Time
- 6 hours 28 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
The extraordinary story of one woman's ten-year medical and metaphysical odyssey that brought her physical, creative, emotional, and spiritual healing, by a MacArthur genius and two-time Pulitzer finalist.
With a play opening on Broadway, and every reason to smile, Sarah Ruhl has just survived a high-risk pregnancy when she discovers the left side of her face is completely paralyzed. She is assured that ninety percent of Bell's palsy patients see spontaneous improvement and experience a full recovery... But Sarah is in the unlucky ten percent. And for a woman, wife, mother, and artist working in theatre, the paralysis and the disconnect between the interior and exterior brings significant and specific challenges. So Ruhl begins an intense decade-long search for a cure while simultaneously grappling with the reality of her new face - one that, while recognizably her own - is incapable of accurately communicating feelings or intentions.
In a series of piercing, witty, and lucid meditations, Ruhl chronicles her journey as a patient, wife, mother, and artist. She explores the struggle of a body yearning to match its inner landscape, the pain of postpartum depression, the story of a marriage, being a playwright and working mother to three small children, and the desire for a resilient spiritual life in the face of illness.
Brimming with insight, humility, and levity, Smile is a triumph by one of America's leading playwrights. It is an intimate examination of loss and reconciliation, and above all else, the importance of perseverance and hope in the face of adversity.
© Saah Ruhl 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022
Critics Review
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With poignancy and power, Smile helps us all to find ways of expressing our internal truth. It helped me to both learn and grow
Gloria Steinem, author of My Life on the Road
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Sarah Ruhl has written a remarkable book. Smile is at once a gripping story and a profound exploration of the mysteries of illness. I know of nothing like it
James Shapiro, author of Shakespeare in a Divided America
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Ravishing ... that rare and gorgeous melding of gemlike, literary insights, raw honesty, heart break and radiant wisdom. It took my breath away. For real
V (formerly Eve Ensler), author of I Am an Emotional Creature, The Vagina Monologues and The Apology
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Profound and necessary. I adore this book
Mary Louise Parker, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Mr. You
See more reviews See fewer reviews
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Staggeringly great...
Beth Henley, author of Crimes of the Heart
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A captivating, insightful memoir
Kirkus, starred review
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Ruhl proves that even life at its most mundane can be fascinating. This incredibly inspiring story offers hope where it's least expected
Publisher's Weekly, starred review
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This book serves as a welcome invitation to worry about it all a little less, and smile a little more
Guardian
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Extraordinary... smart, quipping, pacy... a practical investigation that explores how, when half your face goes on strike, new ways have to be found to do a smile's work
Observer
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Although we come to know Ruhl's courage, intelligence and humour, Smile seems not really a book about Ruhl herself, or Bell's palsy either, but an appeal for some acceptance of what is, for each of us
Times Literary Supplement
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Sarah Ruhl
- Narrator
- Sarah Ruhl
- Duration
- 6 hours 28 minutes
- Release Date
- 20 January 2022
- ISBN
- 9781529191462
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Random House
- Genre
- Memoirs, Autobiography: writers, Coping with / advice about physical impairments / disability, Coping with / advice about illness and specific health conditions
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin. The extraordinary story of one woman's ten-year medical and metaphysical odyssey that brought her physical, creative, emotional, and spiritual healing, by a MacArthur genius and two-time Pulitzer finalist.With a play opening on Broadway, and every reason to smile, Sarah Ruhl has just survived a high-risk pregnancy when she discovers the left side of her face is completely paralyzed. She is assured that ninety percent of Bell's palsy patients see spontaneous improvement and experience a full recovery... But Sarah is in the unlucky ten percent. And for a woman, wife, mother, and artist working in theatre, the paralysis and the disconnect between the interior and exterior brings significant and specific challenges. So Ruhl begins an intense decade-long search for a cure while simultaneously grappling with the reality of her new face - one that, while recognizably her own - is incapable of accurately communicating feelings or intentions.In a series of piercing, witty, and lucid meditations, Ruhl chronicles her journey as a patient, wife, mother, and artist. She explores the struggle of a body yearning to match its inner landscape, the pain of postpartum depression, the story of a marriage, being a playwright and working mother to three small children, and the desire for a resilient spiritual life in the face of illness.Brimming with insight, humility, and levity, Smile is a triumph by one of America's leading playwrights. It is an intimate examination of loss and reconciliation, and above all else, the importance of perseverance and hope in the face of adversity.© Saah Ruhl 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022
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