{"product_id":"a-certain-loneliness-9781496207197","title":"A Certain Loneliness","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e After contracting polio as a child, Sandra Gail Lambert progressed from braces and crutches to a manual wheelchair to a power wheelchair—but loneliness has remained a constant, from the wild claustrophobia of a child in body casts to just yesterday, trapped at home, gasping from pain. \u003ci\u003eA Certain Loneliness\u003c\/i\u003e is a meditative and engaging memoir-in-essays that explores the intersection of disability, queerness, and female desire with frankness and humor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Lambert presents the adventures of flourishing within a world of uncertain tomorrows: kayaking alone through swamps withalligators; negotiating planes, trains, and ski lifts; scoring free drugs from dangerous men; getting trapped in a too-deep snow drift without crutches. \u003ci\u003eA Certain Loneliness\u003c\/i\u003e is literature of the body, palpable and present, in which Lambert’s lifelong struggle with isolation and independence—complete with tiresome frustrations, slapstick moments, and grand triumphs—are\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The author knows herself well and shares thoughts, feelings, and impressions with grace and acute self-awareness. Readers will come away with a cleareyed portrait of the author through the stories of her joys, sorrows, and intimate impressions. A powerful testimony to the determination and strength necessary to persevere despite assumptions, scrutiny, and societal stigmatization.\"—\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eA Certain Loneliness\u003c\/i\u003e is an intriguing memoir. . . . Lambert's lessons in how she lives, how difficult every motion is when her body grows less and less useful every year, are enlightening, perhaps even necessary, for able-bodied readers. . . . That Lambert's is a vanishing condition makes her perspective unusual, but the frustration and emotional turmoil she suffers are perfectly common. Such results could stand to be better understood by the friends and loved ones of people with these conditions—or by anyone who has ever hugged a woman in a wheelchair without permission.\"—Katharine Coldiron, \u003ci\u003eRiver Teeth\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eA Certain Loneliness\u003c\/i\u003e is Lambert's wry, unstinting look at a life spent dealing with chronic pain and having a visibly imperfect body. . . . Lambert's body is the topography of her everyday travels. She's a sobering guide.\"—Nell Beram, \u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"While Lambert's memoir shows us one woman's strength and courage in her battle to defeat fear, loneliness, and physical challenge, I'd like think this book offers more. It should make each of us question: do we build ramps for those differently able or do we simply ignore the problem and look away?\"—Debbie Hagan, \u003ci\u003eBrevity\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Lambert's sensuous writing is not unlike the water she returns to again and again: fluid yet direct, supple and strong. \u003ci\u003eA Certain Loneliness\u003c\/i\u003e is about the failure and triumph of the body—in Lambert's life the former has often preceded the latter—and while her work is an important addition to the canon of disability studies, it should not be pigeon-holed as such. Lambert writes with a studied aloofness and matter-of-fact tone about a body that constantly generates conflict with itself and the world around it. There is a rich practicality to her wisdom, and a pure, knowing access to physicality despite that physicality’s limitations: I've only rarely seen these things so well captured on the page.\"—Sara Rauch, \u003ci\u003eLAMBDA Literary\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Through the sterling voice of this brilliant wordsmith, we bear witness to the struggle and grace of a lesbian body undiminished: the relationship with other lesbians and nature so beautiful, daring, and necessary for survival, the heart reverberates with applause.\"—Roberta Arnold, \u003ci\u003eSinister Wisdom\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In these lyrical and elegiac essays, Sandra Lambert traces a profound relationship with nature—both the vanishing nature of the planet and the complex nature of her own philosophy. Her language is moving, intimate, and bracingly honest.”—Andrew Solomon, National Book Award–winning author of \u003ci\u003eFar from the Tree\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Having pushed her wheelchair past two hundred alligators, Lambert has written a brilliant and necessary account of a wise and triumphant life as a writer, activist, kayaker, lesbian lover, birder, and survivor of polio. I’m in awe of her gifts.”—Carolyn Forché, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Country between Us\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I have loved Sandra Gail Lambert’s stunning and flexible prose for a long time and still was unprepared for the power and searing honesty of her memoir, \u003ci\u003eA Certain Loneliness\u003c\/i\u003e. This book is an act of tremendous beauty.”—Lauren Groff, author of New York Times bestseller \u003ci\u003eFates and Furies\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e 1. Solace: Three of the Places\u003cbr\u003e 2. The Laundromat\u003cbr\u003e 3. Figuring It Out\u003cbr\u003e 4. Well-Nourished White Child\u003cbr\u003e 5. Atlanta—1968\u003cbr\u003e 6. Sex Objects\u003cbr\u003e 7. Complex Math\u003cbr\u003e 8. Atlanta—1984\u003cbr\u003e 9. Becoming Lazy\u003cbr\u003e 10. Rolling in the Mud\u003cbr\u003e 11. Open-Water Swimmers\u003cbr\u003e 12. Pass the Hemlock\u003cbr\u003e 13. Poster Children\u003cbr\u003e 14. The Art of Budgeting\u003cbr\u003e 15. Mosquitoes\u003cbr\u003e 16. Negotiating a Life\u003cbr\u003e 17. Dehiscence\u003cbr\u003e 18. May or May Not\u003cbr\u003e 19. Atlanta—2007\u003cbr\u003e 20. The Last Period\u003cbr\u003e 21. Immoderation and Excess\u003cbr\u003e 22. Looking for the V\u003cbr\u003e 23. Yielding\u003cbr\u003e 24. I Am Here, in This Morning Light\u003cbr\u003e 25. Pride Goeth\u003cbr\u003e 26. Horror in the Okefenokee\u003cbr\u003e 27. I’m Fine, Thank You\u003cbr\u003e 28. The Blind Girl and the Cripple Get on a Plane\u003cbr\u003e 29. The Swimmer\u003cbr\u003e Source Acknowledgments\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49409221787991,"sku":"9781496207197","price":15.19,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781496207197.jpg?v=1730506011","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/a-certain-loneliness-9781496207197","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}