Smile : the story of a face

Resource Information

The work Smile : the story of a face represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Randwick City Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Smile : the story of a face

Title remainder

the story of a face

Statement of responsibility

Sarah Ruhl

Creator

• Ruhl, Sarah, 1974-

Author

• Ruhl, Sarah, 1974-

Subject

• Dramatists, American -- 21st century -- Biography
• Facial paralysis -- Biography
• Ruhl, Sarah, 1974-

Genre

• Biography

Language

eng

Summary

With a play opening on Broadway, and every reason to smile, Sarah Ruhl has just survived a high-risk pregnancy when she discovers the left side of her face is completely paralysed. She is assured that ninety percent of Bell's palsy patients see spontaneous improvement and experience a full recovery... But Sarah is in the unlucky ten percent. And for a woman, wife, mother, and artist working in theatre, the paralysis and the disconnect between the interior and exterior brings significant and specific challenges. So Ruhl begins an intense decade-long search for a cure while simultaneously grappling with the reality of her new face - one that, while recognizably her own - is incapable of accurately communicating feelings or intentions. In a series of piercing, witty, and lucid meditations, Ruhl chronicles her journey as a patient, wife, mother, and artist. She explores the struggle of a body yearning to match its inner landscape, the pain of postpartum depression, the story of a marriage, being a playwright and working mother to three small children, and the desire for a resilient spiritual life in the face of illness

Biography type

contains biographical information

Cataloging source

QBOO

Illustrations

photographs

Index

no index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Target audience

adult