Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: April 5, 2022
Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Avid Reader Press / Audio – ALC via Simon & Schuster Audio
Summary:
From Chloé Cooper Jones—Pulitzer Prize finalist, philosophy professor, Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant recipient—a groundbreaking memoir about disability, motherhood, and a journey to far-flung places in search of a new way of seeing and being seen.
“I am in a bar in Brooklyn, listening to two men, my friends, discuss whether my life is worth living.”
So begins Chloé Cooper Jones’s bold, revealing account of moving through the world in a body that looks different than most. Jones learned early on to factor “pain calculations” into every plan, every situation. Born with a rare congenital condition called sacral agenesis which affects both her stature and gait, her pain is physical. But there is also the pain of being judged and pitied for her appearance, of being dismissed as “less than.” The way she has been seen—or not seen—has informed her lens on the world her entire life. She resisted this reality by excelling academically and retreating to “the neutral room in her mind” until it passed. But after unexpectedly becoming a mother (in violation of unspoken social taboos about the disabled body), something in her shifts, and Jones sets off on a journey across the globe, reclaiming the spaces she’d been denied, and denied herself.
From the bars and domestic spaces of her life in Brooklyn to sculpture gardens in Rome; from film festivals in Utah to a Beyoncé concert in Milan; from a tennis tournament in California to the Killing Fields of Phnom Penh, Jones weaves memory, observation, experience, and aesthetic philosophy to probe the myths underlying our standards of beauty and desirability, and interrogates her own complicity in upholding those myths.
With its emotional depth, its prodigious, spiky intelligence, its passion and humor, Easy Beauty is the rare memoir that has the power to make you see the world, and your place in it, with new eyes.
My thoughts:
I love picking up memoirs…I always find them to be so inspiring and that was absolutely the case here. I had never heard of Chloe Cooper Jones before picking this one up and yet, she is now someone I know I will continue to think about as I go on with my daily life. And it goes without saying that I had to do the audio when I found out she was narrating the book – I just love hearing an author tell their own personal story. It makes it that much more impactful.
This memoir is about how Chloe moves through life as a disabled person. She may look different than others and may have to factor “pain calculations” into her daily activities, but make no mistake, Chloe is no wallflower. Born with a rare congenital condition called sacral agenesis and told from a very early age that she wouldn’t be able to do so many things, she did not let that stop her. In fact, she proved many wrong in most things. Yes, it hurts to walk and yes, she is often seen as “less” but this is someone that is to looked up to for all that she has accomplished in spite of being knocked down so many times.
“I am in a bar in Brooklyn, listening to two men, my friends, discuss whether my life is worth living.”
Unfortunately the above statement something that is all too common an occurrence in Chloe’s life and yet her strength and perseverance is remarkable. She develops coping mechanisms that the rest of us could really benefit from. And to prove to herself that she really is capable, as well as to others, she sets off on a journey across the world, and left me quite jealous, I admit! I never knew I wanted to go to Milan quite so bad until I read this book!
This book is part memoir and part travelog and I just know it is one I will not be forgetting anytime soon. It is insightful and inspiring. Never have I enjoyed my time “walking in someone else’s shoes” as I have while experiencing Chloe’s life through her memoir. I highly recommend this one!
Audio thoughts:
I will always recommend the audio for a memoir when the author reads it because I think only they can tell their story with exactly the right tone and emotions. I was completely lost in this book and once I started it I had a hard time putting it down. I felt like I was right there with Chloe as she traveled around the world and even through all the ups and downs, I felt every emotion she put into the book.
