Smile: A Memoir

* A People Best Book of the Year * Time and The Washington Post?s Most Anticipated List * Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence * From the MacArthur genius, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and playwright, this ?captivating, insightful memoir? (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) is ?a beautiful meditation on identity and how we see ourselves? (Real Simple). 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 90 percent of Bell?s palsy patients experience a full recovery?like Ruhl?s own mother. But Sarah is in the unlucky ten percent. And for a woman, wife, mother, and artist working in theater, 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, profound, 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 mom to three small children, and the desire for a resilient spiritual life in the face of illness. An intimate and ?stunning? (Publishers Weekly, starred review) examination of loss and reconciliation, ?Ruhl reminds us that a smile is not just a smile but a vital form of communication, of bonding, of what makes us human? (The Washington Post). Brimming with insight, humility, and levity, Smile is a triumph by one of America?s leading playwrights.

Author: Sarah Ruhl

Publisher: Scribner / Marysue Rucci Books

Publication Date: Sep 27, 2022

Number of Pages: 272 pages

Language: English

Binding: Paperback/Biography & Autobiography

ISBN-10: 1982150955

ISBN-13: 9781982150952