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The apology / Eve Ensler.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019Copyright date: ©2019Description: 115 pages ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781635574388
  • 1635574382
Subject(s): Additional physical formats: Online version:: ApologyLOC classification:
  • PS3555.N75 A66 2019
Summary: "Like millions of women, Eve Ensler has been waiting much of her lifetime for an apology. Sexually and physically abused by her father, Eve has struggled her whole life from this betrayal, longing for an honest reckoning from a man who is long dead. After years of work as an anti-violence activist, she decided she would wait no longer; an apology could be imagined, by her, for her, to her. The Apology, written by Eve from her father's point of view in the words she longed to hear, attempts to transform the abuse she suffered with unflinching truthfulness, compassion, and an expansive vision for the future. Through The Apology Eve has set out to provide a new way for herself and a possible road for others, so that survivors of abuse may finally envision how to be free. She grapples with questions she has sought answers to since she first realized the impact of her father's abuse on her life: How do we offer a doorway rather than a locked cell? How do we move from humiliation to revelation, from curtailing behavior to changing it, from condemning perpetrators to calling them to reckoning? What will it take for abusers to genuinely apologize? Remarkable and original, The Apology is an acutely transformational look at how, from the wounds of sexual abuse, we can begin to re-emerge and heal. It is revolutionary, asking everything of each of us: courage, honesty, and forgiveness."-- Dust jacket.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Non-Fiction Davis (Central) Library Non-Fiction Non-Fiction 818 ENS Available T00815952
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From the bestselling author of The Vagina Monologues -- a powerful, life-changing examination of abuse and atonement.

"A triumph of artistry and empathy." Naomi Klein
"A crucial step forward . . . This is an urgently needed book right now." Jane Fonda
"Unflinching candor . . . immeasurable grace." Anita Hill
"Courageous, transformative, and yes--healing." Anne Lamott
"Unflinchingly increases our understanding of the human experience." Michael Cunningham
"[ The Apology ] will change how all of us think about our souls." Johann Hari
"Shatteringly brilliant." T he Times
"The geometry of toxic masculinity is contained within these pages." Marc Maron

Like millions of women, Eve Ensler has been waiting much of her lifetime for an apology. Sexually and physically abused by her father, Eve has struggled her whole life from this betrayal, longing for an honest reckoning from a man who is long dead. After years of work as an anti-violence activist, she decided she would wait no longer; an apology could be imagined, by her, for her, to her. The Apology , written by Eve from her father's point of view in the words she longed to hear, attempts to transform the abuse she suffered with unflinching truthfulness, compassion, and an expansive vision for the future.

Through The Apology Eve has set out to provide a new way for herself and a possible road for others, so that survivors of abuse may finally envision how to be free. She grapples with questions she has sought answers to since she first realized the impact of her father's abuse on her life: How do we offer a doorway rather than a locked cell? How do we move from humiliation to revelation, from curtailing behavior to changing it, from condemning perpetrators to calling them to reckoning? What will it take for abusers to genuinely apologize?

Remarkable and original, The Apology is an acutely transformational look at how, from the wounds of sexual abuse, we can begin to re-emerge and heal. It is revolutionary, asking everything of each of us: courage, honesty, and forgiveness.

"Bestselling author of The Vagina Monologues"--Dust jacket.

Includes bibliographical references.

"Like millions of women, Eve Ensler has been waiting much of her lifetime for an apology. Sexually and physically abused by her father, Eve has struggled her whole life from this betrayal, longing for an honest reckoning from a man who is long dead. After years of work as an anti-violence activist, she decided she would wait no longer; an apology could be imagined, by her, for her, to her. The Apology, written by Eve from her father's point of view in the words she longed to hear, attempts to transform the abuse she suffered with unflinching truthfulness, compassion, and an expansive vision for the future. Through The Apology Eve has set out to provide a new way for herself and a possible road for others, so that survivors of abuse may finally envision how to be free. She grapples with questions she has sought answers to since she first realized the impact of her father's abuse on her life: How do we offer a doorway rather than a locked cell? How do we move from humiliation to revelation, from curtailing behavior to changing it, from condemning perpetrators to calling them to reckoning? What will it take for abusers to genuinely apologize? Remarkable and original, The Apology is an acutely transformational look at how, from the wounds of sexual abuse, we can begin to re-emerge and heal. It is revolutionary, asking everything of each of us: courage, honesty, and forgiveness."-- Dust jacket.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Best-selling author and playwright Ensler (The Vagina Monologues) writes an apology in the form of a letter from her late father; the words she needed him to say to her. Ensler states that she tried to allow him to speak in his voice; however, from its outset, this candid and unapologetic book is her reclamation of language, of story. The author tells the difficult account of sexual abuse that began when she was five, from her abuser's perspective, interwoven with her understanding of tactics such as grooming and manipulation. Beyond its power and personal bravery, this is a reintroduction to Ensler's smart, sophisticated writing. She alludes to John Milton's Paradise Lost to show how a man can create a hell inside of himself, and uses her father's voice to grab hold of the master narratives that shape culture and explain how he turned her mother against her. VERDICT Much as The Vagina Monologues made space for people to talk about female sexuality, this book will transform our collective understanding of what an apology for sexual violence can and should be, and how maybe it's more important for survivors to write the script; necessary reading for all.-Emily Bowles, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

This bold, brutal, and ultimately healing narrative by playwright Ensler exposes the origin story of her ground-breaking play The Vagina Monologues through searing reflections on incest and abuse. Ensler assumes the voice of her father, Arthur, who died 31 years earlier, in a tormented letter addressed to "Dear Evie." Following a repressed, abusive childhood, business executive Arthur crafted a charming persona as "a synthetic remedy... to soul sickness." He married at age 50 and became a reluctant father with Ensler's birth in 1953. Infatuated with "the erotic essence of your tenderness," he began fondling the five-year-old Ensler and raped her at nine, knowing that it made her feel like "a dirty shameful girl." Physical abuse toward Ensler escalated through her teenage years: "I wanted you dead... I had to kill what I had already destroyed." Ensler writes in the introduction, "I have had to conjure much" of the personal history that Arthur never shared, and reimagining the events in this uninhibited exploration of an abusive father's motives, madness, and guilt sets her on the path to forgiveness. In the end, Arthur becomes aware of "the tortuous limbo I made inside you"; he apologizes, and is set free. This is a powerful and disturbing story that Ensler writes with grace an aplomb. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

At the molten core of Ensler's trailblazing and empowering work as a playwright (The Vagina Monologues, 1998), nonfiction writer (In the Body of the World, 2013), and activist is the profound trauma caused by her now-long-dead father's sexual and physical abuse. In the absence of any apology from him, Ensler has imagined one, courageously composing an explicit confessional monologue in an attempt to fathom the horrifying mystery of why a parent would deliberately try to destroy a child. We learn that as a boy he was brutally abused and always feared having children. Sure enough, he's undone by his initial awe over his baby daughter, and, as she grows, his tortured and angry self, the Shadow Man, takes over. He graphically recounts his monstrous behavior, from the sexual violence that hurled a joyful child into the abyss of depression and self-loathing to nearly murderous attacks and diabolical psychological assaults. Ultimately, he seeks to peg his crimes to what it means to be a man, as dictated by the ingrained patriarchal blueprint. Ensler's transfixing, appalling, revelatory, and cathartic performance deepens her mission of transmuting her pain into clarion stories that engender understanding, openness, healing, and liberation.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: This daring and resounding work by the renowned and influential Ensler will be launched with a blockbuster publicity campaign and a multicity book tour.--Donna Seaman Copyright 2019 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

The Tony Award-winning playwright and bestselling author excavates the violent truths of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse in a painful quest for healing.Told from the perspective of the father who committed countless wrongs against his child, Ensler's (In the Body of the World: A Memoir of Cancer and Connection, 2013, etc.) latest is a chilling portrait from the broken mirror of his memories; only in the final pages will readers find the narrator's candid acceptance of responsibility for this sadistic history. Fully amplifying her father's warped perceptions, the author provides an exacting, revealing glimpse into the psychology of gaslighting from the view of a perpetrator. Ensler effectively unearths tragic betrayals of trust and the multiple terrors survived by her younger self. Her father's twisted attention and attempted sabotages persisted as he notes the criticisms he planted to undercut his daughter's growth and independence at every turn. Paternal contempt followed the author through high school and beyond, and she captures it all in a fevered account that traces periods of resistance, rebellion, self-destruction, creativity, and sobriety in the years she spent seeking to break from the restrictions cast by a father obsessed with violating her agency. Ensler's father is certain to frustrate readers looking for a more concrete sense of justice, and the graphic catalogue of sexual abuses and physical violence will challenge most readers and trigger some. Still, this is a potent, necessary narrative of healing, and the author succeeds in her "attempt to endow my father with the will and the words to cross the border, and speak the language, of apology so that I can finally be free." This imagined voice is as intimate as it is alarming, and Ensler also taps into a broader struggle, seeking to hold all perpetrators of abuse accountable for their actions.Readers searching for full and consistent contrition may be uncomfortable, but those seeking a greater understanding of psychological manipulation will appreciate this powerful examination. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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