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Description
This is not your mothers memoir. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch expertly moves the reader through issues of gender, sexuality, violence, and the family from the point of view of a lifelong swimmer turned artist. In writing that explores the nature of memoir itself, her story traces the effect of extreme grief on a young woman's developing sexuality that some define as untraditional because of her attraction to both men and women. Her emergence as a writer evolves at the same time and takes the narrator on a journey of addiction, self-destruction, and ultimately survival that finally comes in the shape of love and motherhood.
Product Details
Publisher | Hawthorne Books |
Publish Date | April 12, 2011 |
Pages | 268 |
Language | English |
Type | |
EAN/UPC | 9780979018831 |
Dimensions | 8.9 X 5.6 X 0.8 inches | 1.0 pounds |
About the Author
Lidia Yuknavitch is the author of three works of short fiction: Her Other Mouths, Liberty's Excess, and Real to Reel, as well as a book of literary criticism, Allegories of Violence. Her work has appeared in Ms., The Iowa Review, Exquisite Corpse, Another Chicago Magazine, Fiction International, Zyzzyva, and elsewhere. Her book Real to Reel was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and she is the recipient of awards and fellowships from Poets and Writers and Literary Arts, Inc. Her work appears in the anthologies Life As We Show It (City Lights), Forms At War (FC2), Wreckage of Reason (Spuytin Duyvil). In addition she is the founder and publisher of Chiasmus Press and teaches writing, literature, film, and Women's Studies at Mount Hood Community College in Oregon.
Chelsea Cain was born in 1972, lived the first few years of her life on a hippie commune in Iowa, and grew up in Bellingham, Washington. Her first novel featuring Detective Archie Sheridan and serial killer Gretchen Lowell, HEARTSICK, was a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback and has been translated into over 20 languages. SWEETHEART and EVIL AT HEART, the second and third in the series, respectively, are also NYT bestsellers. Chelsea is a former columnist for The Oregonian, and a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her family.
Reviews
Finalist, Pen Center Creative Nonfiction AwardReaders' Choice Award, Oregon Book AwardsPNBA Award, Pacific Northwest Booksellers AssociationBest Books of the Year, The OregonianTop 10 Portland Books, Willamette WeekBest Portland Book Releases, The Portland MercuryBest Books of the Year, The Nervous BreakdownBest books, LitReactorThe 10 Best Memoirs, FlavorwireThe 100 Great Nonfiction Books must-read works of narrative nonfiction and journalism, The Electric TypewriterCanadian booksellers top non-fiction books, Quill & Quire: Canada's Magazine of Book News and ReviewsThis is how writing is supposed to be.CHELSEA CAIN, New York Times bestselling author of Let Me Go, Kill You Twice and The Night SeasonThis is the book I've been waiting to read all of my life.CHERYL STRAYED, New York Times bestselling author of WildThe book is extraordinary.CHUCK PALAHNIUK, author of Fight ClubThe Chronology of Water ... has lately achieved cult status.CLAIRE DEDERER, The AtlanticYuknavitch has emerged as a trailblazing literary voice that spans genres and dives deep into themes of gender, sexuality, art, violence, and transcendence. Her work is a refreshing alternative to the hero's journey, offering instead what she calls the "misfit's journey."SULEIKA JAOUARD, Lenny LetterThe misfit's journey: Writer Lidia Yuknavitch tells her story at TED2016Why you should listen: The Chronology of Water, which has garnered her a cult following for its honesty and intensity.TED TALKS Watch Lidia Yuknavitch's TED Talk, The Beauty of Being A Misfit, here: https: //www.ted.com/talks/lidia_yuknavitch_the_beauty_of_being_a_misfitThe kind of book Janis Joplin might have written if she had made it through the fire - raw, tough, pure, more full of love than you thought possible and sometimes even hilarious.REBECCA BROWN, author of The Gifts of the Body[The Chronology of Water] is about rage, ecstasy, abuse, appetite, bad decisions and grace. It is one of the most full-throated depictions of being a woman I have ever read. SARAH HEPOLA, author of Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to ForgetYou will feel rage, fear, release, and joy, and you will not be able to stop reading this deeply brave and human voice. DIANA ABU-JABER, author of OriginI read it at one sitting and wondered for days after about love, time, and truth.ANDREI CODRESCU, author of The Poetry LessonFrom the moment I picked up The Chronology of Water, I couldn't put it down, and I thought about it long after I'd finished. KERRY COHEN, author of Loose Girl: A Memoir of PromiscuityThe Chronology of Water's central metaphor works beautifully: we all keep our heads above water, look around, and enjoy our corporeal life despite all the reasons not to; beyond that, the book is immensely impressive to me on a human level: the narrator/speaker/protagonist/author emerges from a seriously hellish childhood and spooky adolescence into a middle age not of bliss, certainly, but of convincing engagement and satisfaction. DAVID SHIELDS, author of Reality Hunger: A Manifesto Simply stated: She is important.Read. Her. Now. MARGARET ELYSIA GARCIA, The Plumas Weekly Reading Lidia Yuknavitch...is to feel. E.V. DE CLEYRE, PloughsharesThis isn't a memoir "about" addiction, abuse, or love: it's a triumphantly unrelenting look at a life buoyed by the power of the written word. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY...I'm also convinced that this bold and highly unconventional book - hot, gritty, unrelenting in its push to dismantle the self and then, somehow, put the self back together again - gets not just under a reader's skin but seeps all the way into her bloodstream. DEBRA GWARTNEY, The OregonianLidia Yuknavitch is my favorite new writer ... It's so genius I'm not quite sure how she did it. VALERIE STIVERS-ISAKOVA, Huffington PostSo honest and unapologetic is her writing that you can practically hear her sigh in catharsis as you turn the pages. MOLLY LABELL, BustBrave and breathless. LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKSThe Chronology of Water is powerful and beautifully written--even the tough parts. BRIDGET KINSELLA, Shelf AwarenessArtfully described in prose that's as spare and beautiful as a diver slicing through the water. FOREWORD REVIEWSIt's a sputteringly good read. ALISON BARKER, Chicago ReaderTragedy, abuse, oceanic booze consumption, and rated-X sexiness. And Ken Kesey, of course. PORTLAND MONTHLYIt's war in there. I'm going back in. JEN GRAVES, The StrangerThe Chronology of Water is a vital book--a book that will be, as Kafka famously demanded, the axe for the frozen sea within you. KIRSTY LOGAN, Pank MagazineHer language, inventive and sparse, is determined to leave its readers spinning in realness, the physical grit of being present as a woman and as a human being. NINA LARY, BitchOne of the strongest memoirs I have had the pleasure to encounter. Don't miss this book. DAVID ATKINSON, The RumpusLidia Yuknavitch's The Chronology of Water might well turn out to be the best book of the year; it's unlike anything I've read before, and I haven't been able to forget it. MICHAEL SCHAUB, Bookslut Her story is haunting, touching, and heart breaking. RICHARD THOMAS, The Nervous BreakdownChronology is about the resiliency of the human heart and its ability to piece itself back together, over and over. VANESSA NIX ANTHONY, Portland Woman MagazineYuknavitch's nonlinear memoir that is at times lyrical, at times conversational, and almost always intense. ANCA SZIAGYI, PloughsaresHer writing hits you, hard. MEGAN ZABEL, Powell's BooksThe Chronology of Water is simply an unapologetic story about life. RENEE E. D'AOUST, The CollagistExhaustively compelling. EMILY GROSVENOR, Eugene MagazineYuknavitch has a powerful personal story to tell, and she does this in surprising ways. JAMIE PASSARO, Pnba Northwest Book LoversYuknavitch can write a really hot sex scene. It's super sexy, and it's never cheesy or over-the-top or too tame. It's perfect...Yuknavitch's memoir is one of the best books I've ever read.CASEY REVIEWS, The Lesbrary
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