[Jones] long believed that the only way to deserve anyone else’s respect, much less desire, was to 'be extraordinary in all other aspects,' brilliant and witty and humorous and cool. If the book is any proof, Jones is all these things. But there’s more to this gorgeous, vividly alive memoir ... Jones concisely sketches her family, childhood and adult life, but she also chronicles a series of adventures ... When she was a child, Jones’s father told her bedtime stories. 'My father understood a good story is a circle that finds the hero back where they started, but with new knowledge,' she writes. Easy Beauty is a good story in this way.
Jones’ soul-stretching, breathtaking existential memoir chronicles her reclaiming of body, mind, and self ... A profound, impressive, and wiser-than-wise contemplation of the way Jones is viewed by others, her own collusion in those views, and whether any of this can be shifted. She shares her ultimate answer—yes—in superlative writing, rendering complex emotion and unparalleled insight in skillfully precise language ... Her debut is a game-changing gift to readers.
Jones...presents, with unflinching honesty, this memoir about living with disability ... Readers will appreciate the book’s portrayal of self and of living with disability, and the author’s honest confrontation of beauty standards and motherhood ... Cooper Jones’s book will encourage readers to view bodies (their own and others’) in a new, more graceful light. Recommended for most memoir collections.
