Golem Girl

Golem Girl
Riva Lehrer
RRP:
NZ$ 34.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 27.99
Paperback
h198 x 130mm - 448pg
7 Oct 2021 UK
International import eta 7-19 days
9780349014838
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
What do we sacrifice in the pursuit of normalcy? And what becomes possible when we embrace monstrosity? In 1958, Riva is one of the first children born with spina bifida to survive. Her parents and doctors are determined to "fix" her, sending the message over and over again that she is broken. That she will never have a job, a romantic relationship, or an independent life. Enduring countless medical interventions, Riva tries her best to be a good girl and a good patient in the quest to be cured. Everything changes when, as an adult, Riva is invited to join a group of artists, writers, and performers who are building Disability Culture. Their work is daring, edgy, funny, and dark; it rejects tropes that define disabled people as pathetic, frightening, or worthless. They insist that disability is an opportunity for creativity and resistance. Emboldened, Riva asks if she can paint their portraits-an intimate and collaborative process that will transform the way she sees herself, others, and the world. With each portrait, and each person' s story, the myths she' s been told her whole life-about her body, her sexuality, and the value of normalcy-begin to crumble. Written with the vivid, cinematic prose of a visual artist, and the love and playfulness that defines all of Riva' s work, Golem Girl is an extraordinary story of survival and creativity. With the author' s magnificent portraits featured throughout, this memoir invites us to stretch ourselves toward a world where bodies flow between all possible forms of what it is to be human.
"With deft painter' s prose, Riva Lehrer helps us discover what it is to be human when others see us as broken. In Golem Girl, Lehrer gives us the gift, at long last, of our own crip beauty. "--Nicola Griffith, author of Hild"Like Patti Smith and Sally Mann, Lehrer opens a vein and spills wisdom and humor, lyricism, and conviction onto the page. She teaches us with images and words that all bodies are exquisite, just as they are. Lehrer' s life and art is an example of the deepest creativity and resistance. "--Ayelet Waldman, author of A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life "Not your typical memoir about ' what it' s like to be disabled in a non-disabled world' . . . Lehrer tells her stories about becoming the monster she was always meant to be: glorious, defiant, unbound, and voracious. Read it!"--Alice Wong, founder and director, Disability Visibility Project "Golem Girl goes to the heart of what makes us human. Lehrer' s story is a revelation of an inner subjective life--full of tragedy, love, and creativity--pushing against the external social stigmas, cultural narratives, and prejudices surrounding disability. She admits a felt kinship with other ' monsters' because their bodies were also ' built by human hands, ' but unlike them, she is her own purpose, her own meaning, her own unstoppable golem. "--Stephen Asma, author of On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears "Riva Lehrer is a great artist and a great storyteller. This is a brilliant book, full of strangeness, beauty, and wonder. "--Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler' s Wife"Vivid and unforgettable . . . It is the story of how someone who is fundamentally different made not a life that transcends that difference, but a life that lionizes it. This book expands our notion of what constitutes the human experience, and it does so with generosity and open-heartedness. "--Andrew Solomon, author of Far From the Tree"Oy, what a story: Job, eat your heart out! In Riva Lehrer' s life chronicle, an appalling fate (and I don' t just mean the circumstances of her birth) gets visited upon an invincible character, and the result is a wincing-wise tale, by turns harrowing and hilarious, cut clean through with flecks of grace and beauty. Lehrer is one wry mensch, and an extraordinary kinstler to boot. "--Lawrence Weschler, author of Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees "With deft painter' s prose, Riva Lehrer helps us discover what it is to be human when others see us as broken. In Golem Girl, Lehrer gives us the gift, at long last, of our own crip beauty. "--Nicola Griffith, author ofHild"This searing personal history expands Lehrer' s project of looking at our bodies inside and out, in all their queerness, fragility, and strength, into a stunning new dimension. "--Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home
Riva Lehrer is an artist, writer, and curator whose work focuses on issues of physical identity and the socially challenged body. She is best known for representations of people with impairments, and those whose sexuality or gender identity have long been stigmatized. A longtime faculty member of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Riva Lehrer is currently an instructor in medical humanities at Northwestern University.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9780349014838
Published: 7 Oct 2021
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: Virago Press
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Format: Paperback
Height: 198mm
Width: 130mm
Weight: 41g
Pages: 448

In stock - for items in stock we aim to dispatch the next business day. For delivery in NZ allow 2-5 business days, with rural taking a wee bit longer.

Locally sourced in NZ - stock comes from a NZ supplier with an approximate delivery of 7-15 business days.

International Imports - stock is imported into NZ, depending on air or sea shipping option from the international supplier stock can take 10-30 working days to arrive into NZ. 

Pre-order Titles - delivery will vary depending on where the title is published, if local stock is available in NZ then 5-7 business days, for international imports it can be 10-30 business days. In all cases we will access the quickest supply option.

Delivery Packaging - we ship all items in cardboard sleeves or by box with either packing paper or corn starch chips. (We avoid using plastics bubble bags)

Tracking - Orders are delivered by track and trace courier and are fully insured, tracking information will be sent by email once dispatched.

View our full Order & Delivery information