Some subscribers may know the work of Lucy Grealy, who wrote a 1994
memoir called AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FACE, about which you can find
details here (all one long line, please):
She would hate to be known solely as the author of THAT book, as if
she amounted to nothing more than a walking medical anomaly -- a
state at least as objectionable to her as being known (with
invariably condescending pity) as simply a writer who battled the
state of having a severe facial disfigurement.
She fought admirably against her problems and eventually, by force of
will (and with a fine sense of humor) made her life do for her
instead of being a captive of her life ... and she became a charming,
funny, generous person, who never seemed to lose her curiosity about
the world she inhabited -- and she was a damned good writer.
This past Wednesday, Lucy Grealy died unexpectedly at a friend's
house here in New York. She was 39. (There seems to be no
explanation yet regarding the cause of death.) Regrettably, even the
NY Times gave in and focused on her face in its obituary, which you
can find here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/21/obituaries/21GREA.html
I'll clip the announcement and insert it below, in case you cannot
open the web site, hoping our friends at the Times will consider this
"fair use" -- which is purely MY intention.
It saddens me when we lose a writer so young, so in her prime, so
brilliant in her observation and her unflinching poise. Somehow, I
am sure, there may be articles that talk of how brave she was, and
how staunch, and all that, making her life sounded like a television
movie, when all she did was do her best to get on.
Do have a look at her work if you can. It's very good. And her loss
is sad, to me, at least.
--start article--
Lucy Grealy, Who Wrote a Memoir on Her Disfigurement, Dies at 39
By CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT
Lucy Grealy, the poet and essayist who wrote a noted 1994 memoir,
"Autobiography of a Face," about her experience growing up with extreme
facial disfigurement and repeated surgery to repair it, died at a
friend's house in Manhattan on Wednesday night. She was 39.
No cause of death was announced. Friends said she had been despondent
over operations she underwent two years ago.
Reviews of her memoir stressed that it was not simply a medical history
or a cry of anguish but a distinguished contribution to the literature
of the self.
In The New York Times, Margo Jefferson wrote: "So many memoirs make you
feel that you've been sealed up inside a wall with a monomaniac. A
really good one, like `Autobiography of a Face,' makes you feel there is
more to ask and learn. You are not just seeing the writer; you are not
trying to see yourself. You are seeing the world in a different way."
In the book, Ms. Grealy described how she underwent surgery at 9 for
what seemed to be a dental cyst, but which led to a diagnosis of Ewing's
sarcoma, a rare and virulent cancer. After several more operations, half
her jaw was gone, and only flesh remained on the lower right side of her
face. But with radiation and chemotherapy, she survived.
Over the next 18 years she underwent about 30 more operations to rebuild
her face. Older boys at her school would yell, "That is the ugliest girl
I have ever seen." She herself concluded, "I was too ugly to go to school."
But she was also proud and determined, Ms. Grealy wrote.
Lucinda Margaret Grealy, whose last name is pronounced GRAY-lee, was
born in Dublin to Desmond and Trena Anne Grealy. She and her twin
sister, Sarah Louise, were the youngest of five children, who included
her older brothers, Sean and Nicholas, and another sister, Suellen. Her
family immigrated to the United States in 1967 when she was 4.
In addition to her twin, Sarah Louise Barasch, she is survived by her
mother and two siblings who live in London, her brother Nicholas and her
sister Suellen Grealy Vlaveanos.
After settling the family in Spring Valley, N.Y., her parents saw
themselves as fallen aristocrats. They had been well-known journalists
in Ireland ? her father had helped found RTE, Ireland's national
broadcasting organization ? and then they felt stuck in the suburbs. Mr.
Grealy commuted to work as a producer for ABC and CBS in New York, while
Mrs. Grealy stayed home, rearing the children.
Ms. Grealy felt at first that by suffering heroically, "I could save the
entire family." But as her endless and crushingly expensive ordeal
continued, she realized that her face, more than her own and her
family's fortune, was her very self-image and life.
"When my face gets fixed, then I'll start living," she said she told
herself.
She graduated in 1981 from Spring Valley High School, earned a B.A. in
1985 at Sarah Lawrence College, where her interest in reading and
writing poetry deepened, and in 1987 went to the Writers Workshop at the
University of Iowa. She spent 1991-92 on a Bunting Fellowship at the
Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study, where she completed her memoir.
As a result of publishing her book, Ms. Grealy saw her life in a
different way. She felt she had gotten her message out, that she had
found herself, that her face had become acceptable, Ms. Barasch, her
twin, said. The book, which sold well, was published internationally and
widely adopted in high school and college curriculums. In 1995 it won
Ms. Grealy a Whiting Award, given to provide financial support to young
writers of exceptional talent.
Ms. Grealy taught at Bennington College and New School University and
published poetry in various magazines. In 2000 she published a second
book, "As Seen on TV," a collection of essays about her family and her
experiences.
--end article--
--tim o'connor
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Received on Mon Dec 23 03:13:33 2002
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