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I've Had to Think Up a Way to Survive
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(DONE) Please add Audible edition: I've Had to Think Up a Way to Survive
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* Title: I've Had to Think Up a Way to Survive: On Trauma, Persistence, and Dolly Parton
* Author(s) name(s): Lynn Melnick (Author, Narrator)
* ASIN: B0BBKZQRC6
* Publisher: Spiegel & Grau by OrangeSky Audio
* Publication date: October 11, 2022
* Format: Audible Audio
* Page count (is hours count rounded up for audiobooks): 8
* Description:
In this unique, compelling blend of cultural criticism and personal essay, poet Lynn Melnick has written a moving and essential exploration of what it takes to find your voice as a woman, a survivor, an artist, and an icon.
The first time Lynn Melnick listened to a Dolly Parton song in full, she was 14 years old, in the triage room of a Los Angeles hospital, waiting to be admitted to a drug rehab program. Already in her young life as a suburban Jewish teen in the 1980s, she had been the victim of rape, abuse, and trauma, and her path to healing would be long. But in Parton’s words and music, she recognized a fellow survivor.
Melnick blends personal essay with astute cultural and music criticism in twenty-one chapters that explore Parton’s dual identities as feminist icon and objectified sex symbol—identities that reflect the author’s own fraught history with rape culture and the grueling effort to reclaim her voice in the wake of loss and trauma. Each chapter engages with the artistry and cultural impact of one of Parton’s songs, as Melnick reckons with violence, misogyny, creativity, parenting, abortion, sex work, love, and the consolations and cruelties of religion. Guided by Parton’s music, Melnick walks the slow path to recovery and finds her voice as a poet in the company of those who came before her and stand with her, as trauma is an experience both unique and universal.
Bold, inventive, and essential, Melnick gives us an accessible and memorable framework for understanding our times and an inspiring, moving account of survival, persistence, and self-discovery.
* Language: English
* Link to book page: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BBKZQRC6
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