- 256 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About This Book
* 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 recoveryâlike 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 faceâone that, while recognizably her ownâis 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.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Chapter 1: Twins
- Chapter 2: Opening Night
- Chapter 3: Bed Rest
- Chapter 4: The Itch
- Chapter 5: Bellâs Palsy
- Chapter 6: Sir Charles Bell and the Greeks
- Chapter 7: The NICU
- Chapter 8: A Brief Digression on My Catholic God
- Chapter 9: The NICU, Continued
- Chapter 10: Home
- Chapter 11: Smile!
- Chapter 12: Actors and Mothers
- Chapter 13: The Duchenne
- Chapter 14: Still Face and the Tony Awards
- Chapter 15: The âMona Lisaâ and Illness as Metaphor
- Chapter 16: Three Children Under the Age of Five and Three Kinds of Vomit
- Chapter 17: All the Crying Mashas and the Concept of a Good Side
- Chapter 18: Show Me What Youâve Got
- Chapter 19: The Observer and the Observed
- Chapter 20: Celiac Disease, or I Remember Bagels
- Chapter 21: Childhood Illness and the Symmetry of Siblings
- Chapter 22: Can You Have Postpartum Depression Two Years After Having Babies?
- Chapter 23: Refuge
- Chapter 24: I Can Only Imagine
- Chapter 25: Lizard Eye, or Kill the Ingenue
- Chapter 26: Hermione, the Frozen Statue
- Chapter 27: The Neurosurgeon Who Liked Irishwomen
- Chapter 28: The Good Doctor and Gratitude
- Chapter 29: Ding-Dong, Ding-Dong, or Grow Accustomed to Your Face
- Chapter 30: Mirror Neurons and Narcissus
- Chapter 31: The Fortune Cookie
- Chapter 32: A Woman Slowly Gets Better
- Acknowledgments
- Resources and Sources
- About the Author
- Copyright