Smile: A Memoir
Oct 2021 · Simon and Schuster
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256
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About this ebook
* A People Best Book of the Year * Time and The Washington Post’s Most Anticipated List * Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence *
From the MacArthur genius, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and playwright, this “captivating, insightful memoir” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) is “a beautiful meditation on identity and how we see ourselves” (Real Simple).
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 paralyzed. She is assured that 90 percent of Bell’s palsy patients experience a full recovery—like Ruhl’s own mother. But Sarah is in the unlucky ten percent. And for a woman, wife, mother, and artist working in theater, 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, profound, 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 mom to three small children, and the desire for a resilient spiritual life in the face of illness.
An intimate and “stunning” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) examination of loss and reconciliation, “Ruhl reminds us that a smile is not just a smile but a vital form of communication, of bonding, of what makes us human” (The Washington Post). Brimming with insight, humility, and levity, Smile is a triumph by one of America’s leading playwrights.
From the MacArthur genius, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and playwright, this “captivating, insightful memoir” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) is “a beautiful meditation on identity and how we see ourselves” (Real Simple).
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 paralyzed. She is assured that 90 percent of Bell’s palsy patients experience a full recovery—like Ruhl’s own mother. But Sarah is in the unlucky ten percent. And for a woman, wife, mother, and artist working in theater, 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, profound, 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 mom to three small children, and the desire for a resilient spiritual life in the face of illness.
An intimate and “stunning” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) examination of loss and reconciliation, “Ruhl reminds us that a smile is not just a smile but a vital form of communication, of bonding, of what makes us human” (The Washington Post). Brimming with insight, humility, and levity, Smile is a triumph by one of America’s leading playwrights.
Ratings and reviews
5.0
2 reviews
Matthew Poe
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October 5, 2021
Thanks to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for an early copy of this work. It’s easily one of my favorite books of the year! Focused primarily on the decade from the birth of her children to the present, Smile is the story of Ruhl’s experience with Bell’s Palsy, a paralysis of one side of her face which struck after the birth of her twins. In many cases, Bell’s Palsy resolves itself in a matter of months, but in Ruhls’ case, it did not. This is her memoir of being a person, a woman, a theater artist, who was unable to make her exterior match her interior state, and more broadly, a funny, vulnerable meditation on what it means to feel embodied joy, and what happens to the heart when the body will not cooperate. In Ruhl’s profound-but-relatable, quietly reflective style, she uses the experience to reflect on her life, on illness and wellness, on connection and alienation. I recall Ruhl's observation in her (also brilliant) essay collection 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write (#76!) about the lack of plays that take seriously the experience of motherhood from the mother’s point of view, and this book seems to be a near-perfect addition to the neglected canon of stories that center and illuminate that experience. Speaking personally, it was eye opening, as a man, to learn about Ruhl’s experience as a new mother working in theater. I knew intellectually that workplaces suck at accommodating parents and especially new mothers, but WOW, the things that happened to actual legend/genius Sarah Ruhl were so infuriating; her recounting of them gave me a slightly realer understanding of the world. If you’re already a fan of Sarah Ruhl, like me, there’s also a fun “behind the music” quality to the book; you get to better understand the personal context of some of her recent books and plays. But if you’ve never encountered her work, this is the perfect place to start: here’s a standout memoir for anyone who craves a wise, reflective, funny vision of the world through the eyes of someone who has had a relatively unusual vantage point on it for the past decade, and who has the tremendous writerly skill--and generosity--to share how it changed her.
About the author
Sarah Ruhl is a playwright, essayist, and poet. Her fifteen plays include In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play), The Clean House, and Eurydice. She has been a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Tony Award nominee, and the recipient of the MacArthur “genius” Fellowship. Her plays have been produced on- and off-Broadway, around the country, internationally, and have been translated into many languages. Her book 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write was a New York Times Notable Book. Her other books include Letters from Max, with Max Ritvo, and 44 Poems for You. She has received the Steinberg Playwright Award, the Samuel French Award, the Feminist Press Under 40 Award, the National Theater Conference Person of the Year Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a Whiting Award, a Lily Award, and a PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for mid-career playwrights. She teaches at the Yale School of Drama, and she lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Tony Charuvastra, who is a child psychiatrist, and their three children. You can read more about her work at SarahRuhlPlaywright.com.
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