The Body Broken: A Memoir [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Lynne Greenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 24, 2009

In the tradition of William Styron’s tour de force Darkness Visible, The Body Broken is a gorgeously told and intensely moving account of one woman’s extraordinary odyssey into a life of chronic pain–and of the unyielding resilience of the human spirit.

At age nineteen, Lynne Greenberg narrowly survived a devastating car crash. When her broken neck healed–or so everyone thought–her recovery was hailed as a medical miracle and she returned to normal life. Years later, she seemed to have it all: a loving husband, two wonderful children, a peaceful home, and a richly satisfying job as a tenured poetry professor. Then, one morning, this blissful façade shattered–the pain in her neck returned in the most vicious way. A life with physical agony ensued.

Greenberg realized that she had been living for years on borrowed time. As she and her family navigated an increasingly complicated web of doctors and specialists, Greenberg taught herself to fight her own battles–against a medical system ill-equipped to handle patients with chronic pain, and against the emotional pitfalls of a newly restricted life. Drawing on her family’s support, her own indomitable spirit, and an intense connection to the poetry she taught, Greenberg found the strength to return to a productive and satisfying–if irrevocably changed–life. This deeply personal saga takes us to the heart of a family’s struggle to survive a crisis, and shows us how, at the most profound levels, such an odyssey affects a patient’s marriage, the ability to parent, family, work, and friendships.

The Body Broken is a powerful, lyrical story of one woman’s remarkable determination and breathtaking courage, as she puts mind over matter in the struggle to reclaim her life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Twenty-two years after recovering from a devastating car crash when she was 19, Greenberg, a professor at New York City's Hunter College, began experiencing unbearable neck pain. Several hospital visits and X-rays later, it turns out her miraculous recovery after the accident wasn't quite that: one of her vertebrae was still fractured. Greenberg chronicles the two years that follow: the contradicting doctor diagnoses; the descent into drugs and depression; the unraveling of her relationship with her two young children. Harrowing stuff, and when Greenberg keeps her prose spare and direct, as when she describes with cold, gory precision watching her leg being sewn back together, the result is powerful. But Greenberg's account often reads like an extended treatise on pain, overly reliant on metaphor as opposed to anecdote to describe her experience, comparing it, say, to Adam and Eve's fall in Milton's Paradise Lost (Greenberg's field is 17th-century British literature). Otherwise engaging, Greenberg's narrative is a revealing, personal journey through physical trauma.(Mar.)
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Review

Advance praise for The Body Broken

“We are all looking for lessons in courage. And family. And faith that some of our sweetest hours will come on the darkest days. All are here in Lynne Greenberg’s razor-sharp memoir of life and pain and the miracle of a family bound together by love.”
–Diane Sawyer, ABC News

“As a fellow survivor of a body broken, I find Greenberg’s memoir to be unsparing, accurate, and moving, especially in depicting her struggle to come to terms with residual chronic pain.”
–Maxine Kumin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Inside the Halo and Beyond: The Anatomy of a Recovery

“This book describes with shattering clarity the experience of relentless, horrifying pain. Drawing on a vast range of poetic sources, it gives voice both to the author’s loss of bodily and psychic coherence and to the process of redemption that followed, and it is written with lyricism, poignance, and wit. A rare testimony to the enmeshment of our fragility and our strength, it will provide crucial solace to those who are in pain, and insight to those who love them.”
–Andrew Solomon, National Book Award-winning author of The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

“Engaging . . . a revealing, personal journey through physical trauma.”
–Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Random House (March 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400067421
• ISBN-13: 978-1400067428
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #631,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #84 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Disorders & Diseases > Chronic Pain

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving and revealing personal journey, March 25, 2009

By 

Isabelle Samuels (La Jolla, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Body Broken: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Wow! What a good read! Lynne Greenberg's revealing and moving memoir recounts her journey into and out of the abyss of living with chronic pain. This is a beautifully written personal story that will touch anyone. She frankly discusses the trials of going through various medical therapies and takes the reader on an unsentimental ride through her personal hell and then back out - into a new, different life. This book will be healing to the millions of chronic pain sufferers and the millions more who love them and live through it with them.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Contemplating The Body Broken . . ., March 27, 2009

By 

Kategal (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Body Broken: A Memoir (Hardcover)

This gorgeous, haunting memoir portrays Greenberg's hellish journey into the world of chronic pain without ever asking for reader's pity, and with such glorious language that the experience of reading it is remarkably enjoyable, considering the grave subject matter. Given Greenberg's position as a literary scholar, it is not surprising that interwoven throughout the book's pages are a multitude of poems and quotes and references - all relating to the universal, timeless experience of pain. At the same time, the author is at ease discussing the more mundane aspects of her journey - trips to Starbucks with her best girlfriends, retail therapy, etc. This book is not necessarily of the "feel good memoir" genre - the author is quite honest about the ongoing nature of her condition. Still, there is a realness to her voice, and a believable coming-to-terms that is ultimately uplifting and honest. I would highly recommend this memoir to any person struggling with chronic pain or illness, or to loved ones eager to provide the incredible support that Greenberg received from family and friends throughout the darkest days of her ordeal.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Healing a broken body and a wounded soul, April 2, 2009

By 

Kelli B. (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Body Broken: A Memoir (Hardcover)

There is a lot to love in this book. It is not weighed down by too much verbiage. The word choice is masterful. It is beautifully written. It is simultaneously simple and complex. The poems about pain that begin each chapter act as a needle and thread sewing the narrative together. Some of us have not spent a lot of time with poetry since college; this book offers a chance to revisit some beauties with fresh explications and insights. I was left wanting to pull out some of those old anthologies. As someone who had a similar experience with the medical community, I was particularly gratified by Greenberg's description of the extremes of anger, frustration, helplessness and self-blame that a patient with a difficult-to-diagnose condition goes through. Her treatment of the doctors is fair and nuanced--she neither deifies nor demonizes. Her honesty about her failings as a mother, as a sister and as a friend is refreshing. This book is a beautiful little treasure chest.