Out of Joint: A Private and Public Story of Arthritis (American Lives) (Hardcover)

by Mary Felstiner (Author) "Hours before morning I wake feeling my wrists starched..." (more)
Key Phrases: Charlotte Salomon, San Francisco, Arthritis Foundation (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Felstiner brings a feminist's eye and a historian's tool kit to this narrative of her decades-long struggle with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a crippling autoimmune disease that afflicts more than two million Americans. Felstiner (To Paint Her Life: Charlotte Salomon in the Nazi Era), a professor of history at San Francisco State University, traces the growing scientific understanding of RA, from the earliest accounts in medical antiquity to the latest theories of how pregnancy might trigger the disorder. She touches on treatments, from antimalarial drugs through cortisone and the now-blackballed painkiller Vioxx. Part of the American Lives Series, edited by Tobias Wolff, Felstiner's memoir suffers at times from self-indulgent prose and tiresome metaphors. Yet the book's total effect is powerful, and her major chords strike true: RA is a devastatingly disabling condition with steep private and public costs; its disproportionate effects on women have not been adequately addressed; its social, political and interpersonal implications are significant. In the end, Felstiner's story is as much about the complexities of belonging;as a woman, a feminist, a Jew, an intellectual;as it is about her illness. So it has something to discover for any reader, pained joints or otherwise. 10 b&w photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"In her brilliant, poetic memoir Mary Felstiner blends her personal story with the larger and often hidden story of millions of Americans who suffer chronic pain and arthritic disabilities. A major achievement and a great read."--Gerda Lerner, author of The Creation of Patriarchy, Why History Matters, and Fireweed "A startling, poignant depiction of the progression of arthritis and of the person who is afflicted. Written from the heart with great lucidity and power, this book will alter forever the way you think about chronic illness."--Irvin Yalom, MD, author of The Schopenhauer Cure: A Novel "Has there ever been a disease that is so widespread, about which there has previously been so little thoughtful writing? Mary Felstiner has created a landmark in the literature, as Susan Sontag did with her book about cancer."--Adam Hochschild, prize-winning author of Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves "Although this memoir is a mediation on illness, pain, suffering, loss, history and mortality, it does all these things charmingly and effortlessly. It is a quirky, brave, heartening book that is easy to curl up at night with, yet cannot be forgotten in the morning."--Melanie Thernstrom, author of The Dead Girl "Out of Joint remins us how the words we use as health professionals can have a profound negative effect on the recipient's appraisal of the stiuation... THis book is inspiring and easy to read."--Nursing Standard, November 1, 2006

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 222 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press; illustrated edition edition (October 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803220308
• ISBN-13: 978-0803220300
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,111,955 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Out of Joint but In Synch, February 27, 2006

By	A. Wexler - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Although I had intended to read Out of Joint slowly, chapter by chapter, once I began the momentum built until I stayed up extremely late one night to finish it. It is a gorgeous, haunting, painful, exhilarating, breathtaking book, and one that is as much poetry as powerful analysis. This is a deeply courageous book, one willing to stay inside the pain and the joints---I felt almost as if I were right in there, almost inside this body. The book conveys that bodily presence so beautifully, it is quite amazing. It also conveys both movement and stasis, a sense of the endlessness of pain, but through it all the movements of the author's mind, as she explored different facets of it, and in many different sites--library, clinic, home, mountainside, street, office, and classroom. I felt as if I were traveling along with her, on a sort of Pilgrim's Progress, on a quest, even if there is no ultimate resolution, though there are moments of release and exultation. This will become a classic text, not just about arthritis but about writing, and about memoir, and about the body. I hope it will be read widely everywhere. Many thanks for writing such a wise and generous and sensuous book, one that, even in the darkness, is full of light!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Investigation of Connectedness, March 14, 2006

By	Harriet Chessman "harriet_chessman" (The Bay Area) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I enjoyed this book so greatly. I love the way Mary Felstiner approaches the subject of joints, jointedness, connection, from such varied angles, using documents of cultural, personal, and medical history. Magnificent!! What a huge accomplishment this book represents. Apart from all else, I've learned a staggering amount from this gifted author about the body in a cultural context, and this has illuminated a lot of questions in my own life.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Appreciation for Out of Joint, March 21, 2006

By	Chris Keats (Chevy Chase, MD United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Buy this book! And discover the magic which Mary
Felstiner, a prize-winning professor of history,
brings to words. This story about rheumatoid arthritis
is a page-turner. Felstiner's gift for mixing plain
speech with the technical and erudite is totally
astounding. Further, she demonstrates the healing
potential of narrative, a multi-faceted narrative
glinting with allusion. Through her account, Felstiner
manages to make us proud to be human, capable at the
same time of suffering and transcendence. Five stars.