Recensori in anteprimaLisa Olstein

An intimate and revelatory voyage through pain and perception, pop culture and personal experience In this extended lyric essay, a poet mines her lifelong experience with migraine to deliver a marvelously idiosyncratic cultural history of pain—how we experience, express, treat, and mistreat it. Her sources range from the trial of Joan of Arc to the essays of Virginia Woolf and Elaine Scarry to Hugh Laurie’s portrayal of Gregory House on House M.D. As she engages with science, philosophy, visual art, rock lyrics, and field notes from her own medical adventures (both mainstream and alternative), she finds a way to express the often-indescribable experience of living with pain. Eschewing simple epiphanies, Olstein instead gives us a new language to contemplate and empathize with a fundamental aspect of the human condition. “A fascinating, totally seductive read!” —Eula Biss, author of On Immunity “A book built of brain and nerve and blood and heart, about what it means to live with pain. Irreverent and astute.” —Elizabeth McCracken, author of Bowlaway “A thrilling investigation into pain, language, and Olstein’s own exile from what Woolf called ‘the army of the upright.’” —Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks