Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory (Unabridged)
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4.3 • 15 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“A visceral and incisive collection of six propulsive personal essays.” —Vanity Fair
*A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * Named a Most-Anticipated Book by Entertainment Weekly, Lit Hub, and AV Club * New York Times Paperback Row*
From the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Women Talking and the acclaimed director and actor Sarah Polley, Run Towards the Danger explores memory and the dialogue between her past and her present
These are the most dangerous stories of my life. The ones I have avoided, the ones I haven’t told, the ones that have kept me awake on countless nights. As these stories found echoes in my adult life, and then went another, better way than they did in childhood, they became lighter and easier to carry.
In this extraordinary book, Sarah Polley explores what it is to live in one’s body, in a constant state of becoming, learning, and changing. Each of these six essays captures a piece of Polley’s life as she remembers it, while at the same time examining the fallibility of memory, the mutability of reality in the mind, and the possibility of experiencing the past anew, as the person she is now but was not then. As Polley writes, the past and present are in a “reciprocal pressure dance.”
Polley contemplates stories from her own life ranging from stage fright to high-risk childbirth to endangerment and more. After struggling with the aftermath of a concussion, Polley met a specialist who gave her wholly new advice: to recover from a traumatic injury, she had to retrain her mind to strength by charging towards the very activities that triggered her symptoms. With riveting clarity, she shows the power of applying that same advice to other areas of her life in order to find a path forward, a way through. Rather than live in a protective crouch, she had to run towards the danger.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Actress, filmmaker, and activist Sarah Polley reflects on the repercussions of growing up in the spotlight in her brilliant collection of essays about fame and trauma. Polley is fearlessly candid right from the start, recounting the loss of her mother to cancer at age 11 and the necessity of working as the star of the TV series Road to Avonlea during this time. With raw introspection, Polley processes her highs and lows as she gradually moves from a career in front of the camera to one behind it. The earnestness of her narration paints an insightful—and very unglamorous—portrait of what success looks like in the entertainment industry. We appreciated listening to Polley’s experiences with dangerous on-set conditions, illness, motherhood, sexual assault, and the male gaze. Run Towards the Danger is a powerful examination of the necessity of staring down your demons as the first step toward overcoming them.
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