That is how I felt reading Brown’s words: like I had fainted because the pain was too much for me to handle, and I’d just woken up with her looking down at me, fanning my face, saying, “You’re okay. You’ll be okay.” Her prose held me, saw me for what I was. Though different from mine, her struggles reminded me that me and my aching body are not alone. And for that, I am deeply, relievingly grateful ... masterful, heartrending essays that neither shy away from pain nor bow down to it.
... searing and ineffable essays ... Brown describes in gorgeous prose her lifelong struggle with cerebral palsy, which has confined her to a wheelchair. At times painful to read, it is equally difficult to put down. The reader feels Brown’s anguish but also appreciates fleeting moments of beauty ... The essays are enlightening on so many levels as she describes situations many of us take for granted ... Brown’s essays can feel like a punch in the gut, but they are beautiful, nevertheless.
... a moving collection ... Brown is a superb essayist in both technical form and unexpected titles alone make you want to read them ... passionate, wry, and unflinchingly frank ... an unblinking personal journey that takes us to places we all need to know and understand better.
Whether she’s writing about traveling Italy in a wheelchair or managing a classroom of adolescents in Texas, Brown offers poetic, contemplative insight about her experiences. Yes, these moments are all, necessarily, observed from the vantage point of her particular body. But even when she revisits an idea or a location, the ideas are always fresh ... Brown has won awards and acclaim for her poetry collection The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded, and her prose is equally lyrical ... careful attention shines in this essay collection, which opens a window into Brown’s graceful interior life.
Brown excels at examining the body in relation to society, but her prose really begins to breathe when she writes about faith. Not only does she examine what it means to immerse oneself in faith, but she situates faith in larger society and the current political landscape. While at times this focus can feel incongruous, in the larger context of the book, Brown’s grappling with faith and how life is navigated makes perfect sense ... will strike chords in anyone who’s ever questioned their faith, been challenged by their body, or who has ever been vulnerable—which is to say, all of us.
Memories of [Brown's] dead sister haunt every page of this powerful book, as does the ominous ticking of her lifetime survival-rate clock...Brown is a writer to watch...Heartfelt and wrenching, a significant addition to the literature of disability.
Brown explores living with cerebral palsy in her fine prose debut ... Occasionally, the sentiments ring overly familiar...However, Brown mostly overcomes the potential for overwrought sentimentality, due to her careful and exacting use of language ... Brown’s work leaves readers with a lyrical look at living within the confines of the body.
