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My Body Is a Book of Rules
My Body Is a Book of Rules | Elissa Washuta
11 posts | 8 read | 24 to read
As Elissa Washuta makes the transition from college kid to independent adult, she finds herself overwhelmed by the calamities piling up in her brain. When her mood-stabilizing medications arent threatening her life, theyre shoving her from depression to mania and back in the space of an hour. Her crisis of American Indian identity bleeds into other areas of self-doubt; mental illness, sexual trauma, ethnic identity, and independence become intertwined. Sifting through the scraps of her past in seventeen formally inventive chapters, Washuta aligns the strictures of her Catholic school education with Cosmopolitans mandates for womanhood, views memories through the distorting lens of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and contrasts her bipolar highs and lows with those of Britney Spears and Kurt Cobain. Built on the bones of fundamental identity questions as contorted by a distressed brain, My Body Is a Book of Rules pulls no punches in its self-deprecating and ferocious look at human fallibility.
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tholmz
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This book is so unique, fascinating, beautiful, heartbreaking, traumatic, and real.

“I try to remember that my body is not really the sum of what‘s visible. Nothing that‘s wrong with me can be solved by rubbing cream on my skin.”

Anna40 Sounds fascinating! Was it difficult to read? 7y
tholmz @Anna40 I‘d say it was content-wise just because it‘s really heavy, but it is super readable. For sure trigger warnings for sexual assault and language and rape, etc. though. Really, really uniquely written. 7y
Anna40 @tholmz Ok! Thanks for the warning! 6y
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catieohjoy
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Today I'm reading Elissa Washuta's memoir/essay collection, which I picked up after seeing her speak on a great panel about nontraditional nonfiction forms at AWP. This is an experimental book involving Native identity, mental illness, substance abuse, sexual assault, faith, Cosmo's terrible sex advice, and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. All in under 200 pages! (And because I hope people will find this book:) #NativeBooks #MentalHealthBooks

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Yamich49
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THIS BOOK. Such a dark and unflinching memoir. Elissa Washuta is brutally honest and matter-of-fact as she describes and dissects the ways in which her life has been shaped by her mixed-race identity, bipolar disorder, sexual assaults, eating disorder, Catholic identity, gender and our society. She also combines a lot of different formats and storytelling methods in such an engaging way. It's not the easiest read, but it is powerful and angry. 👏

BookishFeminist 🙌🏼🙌🏼 I can't wait to read this 8y
Yamich49 @BookishFeminist Yes! I would not recommend reading it all at once as it is pretty heavy stuff (and obviously TW for everything mentioned in my review). But it's worth it. 8y
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Yamich49
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CherylDeFranceschi Powerful. 8y
BookishFeminist 🙌🏼🙌🏼 so true. 8y
Yamich49 @CherylDeFranceschi @BookishFeminist Yes! So powerful and true. This was a hard book to read but oh so worth it. 8y
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Yamich49

"For years, I had kept that hair growing, as though it were an extension of my bloodstream and my Indian blood could increase as my ragged ends grasped for my waist."
‼️ ??

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Yamich49

"And what of Delilah? She did it for money. As good a reason as any. Temptress, snake, bitch. Whatever. She got paid. She got out alive."

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Yamich49
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And misandry for the win! 💋

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Yamich49

"NEVER HESITATE TO CALL UNIVERSITY POLICE, they said, but we all knew about what happened to kids who were honest with the people in charge about the severity of their problems: they were told to get the fuck out of college until they got their shit together."
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Yamich49
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Yamich49
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Haven't even started chapter one and I'm hooked already. I can tell this one is going to be hard...

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Yamich49
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Ahhh this came in the mail today! Starting it despite the multiple books I have waiting on Overdrive. That title and cover tho - love it!

BookishFeminist OMG this looks so good! 8y
Yamich49 @BookishFeminist @shawnmooney OMG y'all it is SO GOOD so far. Dark and brutally honest but SO GOOD. 8y
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