Under My Bed and Other Essays
Jody Keisner
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
Bookshop.org has the highest-rated customer service of any bookstore in the world
Description
Jody Keisner was raised in rural Nebraska towns by a volatile father and kind but passive mother. As a young adult living alone for the first time, she began a nighttime ritual of checking under her bed each night, not sure who she was afraid of finding. An intruder? A monster? Her father? Keisner's fears mature as she becomes a wife and mother, and the boogeyman under the bed shape-shifts, though its shapes are no less frightening--a young aunt's drowning, the "chest chomp" in the classic horror movie The Thing, a diagnosis of a chronic autoimmune disease, the murder of a young college student, an eccentric grandmother's belief in reincarnation and her dying advice: "Don't be afraid."
In Under My Bed and Other Essays, Jody Keisner searches for the roots of the violence and fear that afflict women, starting with the working-class midwestern family she was adopted into and ending with her own experience of mothering daughters. In essays both literary and experimental, Keisner illustrates the tension between the illusion of safety, our desire for control, and our struggle to keep the things we fear from reaching out and pulling us under.
Product Details
| Publisher | University of Nebraska Press |
| Publish Date | September 01, 2022 |
| Pages | 240 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Paperback / softback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781496230478 |
| Dimensions | 9.0 X 6.0 X 0.6 inches | 0.8 pounds |
BISAC Categories: Biography & Memoir, Biography & Memoir
About the Author
Jody Keisner is an associate professor of English at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Threepenny Review, Brevity, Fourth Genre, and AARP's the Girlfriend, among other periodicals. Find out more at www.jodykeisner.com.
Reviews
"This well-written and insightful book is for anyone who wonders how to confront fear for themselves, their children, or women in general. Told with compassion and curiosity, it will also appeal to anyone overcoming chronic disease or parental bullying."--Sandra Hager Eliason, Rain Taxi
"Keisner expertly braids together her life's stories with research to guide readers through the immediate experience of fear as well as the effort to reckon with it."--Whitney (Walters) Jacobson, Split Rock Review
"Under My Bed offers a complex, compelling, and multi-faceted look at the origins of fear, motherhood, and forgiveness."--Emily Webber, merliterary.com-- (10/17/2022 12:00:00 AM)
"Keisner's book shows how we can pull the proverbial boogeyman out from under the bed and, by naming it, remove its power over us."--Elizabeth Fiala, Adroit Journal-- (9/12/2022 12:00:00 AM)
"Ultimately, it is women who heal other women. The author's grandmother's parting advice to her is, 'Don't be afraid.' With these essays, Jody Keisner both enumerates the many reasons women should be afraid and the many ways grace and strength carry them past that fear and onto empowerment."--Alice Stephens, Washington Independent Review of Books-- (9/19/2022 12:00:00 AM)
"Under My Bed is a tender book, an honest book, and a rich tale of learning to thrive just as we are--flawed and imperfect, yet still fully capable of risking both growth and love."--Susan J. Tweit, Story Circle Network
"As she faces her worries head on, Keisner grants herself--and her readers--access to the deeper, more sustaining forces that underlie our anxieties: attachment, devotion, joy, and an exquisite awareness of the preciousness of life. What we most fear, her writing reminds us, reveals what we most treasure. The greatest triumph of Under My Bed and Other Essays is how masterfully Keisner captures this inescapable tension."--Nicole Graev Lipson, Hippocampus Magazine-- (9/7/2022 12:00:00 AM)
"In her luminous new collection, Under My Bed and Other Essays, Keisner interrogates fear--personal and collective--from one sharp angle after the next, with a special acuity for the fears known best by women and mothers."--Jeannine Ouellette, Brevity's Blog-- (9/2/2022 12:00:00 AM)
"Keisner debuts with a riveting essay collection that revisits her painful past. . . . The essays attack difficult material straight on, but Keisner's smart, clear, and incisive writing cuts deep."--Publishers Weekly
"Vulnerable and smart, thoughtful and thought-provoking, gorgeously written and poignantly tender, Under My Bed and Other Essays shines a light into darkness and shows us all the messy glories of what it means to be human."--Randon Billings Noble, editor of A Harp in the Stars: An Anthology of Lyric Essays
"Keisner expertly braids together her life's stories with research to guide readers through the immediate experience of fear as well as the effort to reckon with it."--Whitney (Walters) Jacobson, Split Rock Review
"Under My Bed offers a complex, compelling, and multi-faceted look at the origins of fear, motherhood, and forgiveness."--Emily Webber, merliterary.com-- (10/17/2022 12:00:00 AM)
"Keisner's book shows how we can pull the proverbial boogeyman out from under the bed and, by naming it, remove its power over us."--Elizabeth Fiala, Adroit Journal-- (9/12/2022 12:00:00 AM)
"Ultimately, it is women who heal other women. The author's grandmother's parting advice to her is, 'Don't be afraid.' With these essays, Jody Keisner both enumerates the many reasons women should be afraid and the many ways grace and strength carry them past that fear and onto empowerment."--Alice Stephens, Washington Independent Review of Books-- (9/19/2022 12:00:00 AM)
"Under My Bed is a tender book, an honest book, and a rich tale of learning to thrive just as we are--flawed and imperfect, yet still fully capable of risking both growth and love."--Susan J. Tweit, Story Circle Network
"As she faces her worries head on, Keisner grants herself--and her readers--access to the deeper, more sustaining forces that underlie our anxieties: attachment, devotion, joy, and an exquisite awareness of the preciousness of life. What we most fear, her writing reminds us, reveals what we most treasure. The greatest triumph of Under My Bed and Other Essays is how masterfully Keisner captures this inescapable tension."--Nicole Graev Lipson, Hippocampus Magazine-- (9/7/2022 12:00:00 AM)
"In her luminous new collection, Under My Bed and Other Essays, Keisner interrogates fear--personal and collective--from one sharp angle after the next, with a special acuity for the fears known best by women and mothers."--Jeannine Ouellette, Brevity's Blog-- (9/2/2022 12:00:00 AM)
"Keisner debuts with a riveting essay collection that revisits her painful past. . . . The essays attack difficult material straight on, but Keisner's smart, clear, and incisive writing cuts deep."--Publishers Weekly
"Vulnerable and smart, thoughtful and thought-provoking, gorgeously written and poignantly tender, Under My Bed and Other Essays shines a light into darkness and shows us all the messy glories of what it means to be human."--Randon Billings Noble, editor of A Harp in the Stars: An Anthology of Lyric Essays
Earn by promoting books
Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.
Become an affiliate
