Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves (eBook)

A revealing and unusal memoir by the bestselling author of What I Loved, an account of her search for the source of her mysterious nervous disorder which offers a fascinating exploration of the mind and its connection with the body - 'provocative but often funny, encyclopedic but down to earth' Oliver Sacks.
While speaking at a memorial event for her father, Siri Hustvedt suffered a violent seizure from the neck down. She managed to finish her talk and the paroxysms stopped, but not for good. Again and again she found herself a victim of the shudders. What had happened?
Chronicling her search for the shaking woman, Hustvedt takes the reader on a journey into contemporary psychiatry, neurology and psychoanalysis. She unearths stories and theories from the annals of medical history, literature and philosophy, and delves into her own past. In the process, she raises fundamental questions: what is the relationship between mind and body? How do we remember? What is the self?
In a seamless synthesis of personal experience and extensive research, Hustvedt conveys the often frightening mysteries of illness and the complexities of diagnosis. As engaging as it is thought-provoking, The Shaking Woman brilliantly illuminates the age-old dilemma of the mental and the physical, and what it means to be human.

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FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WHAT I LOVED AND A WOMAN LOOKING AT MEN LOOKING AT WOMEN'Provocative but often funny, encyclopedic but down to earth . . . an extraordinary double story' Oliver Sacks'It is Hustvedt's gift to write with exemplary clarity of what is by necessity unclear' Hilary Mantel, GuardianWhile speaking at a memorial event for her father, the novelist Siri Hustvedt suffered a violent seizure from the neck down. Was it triggered by nerves, emotion - or something else entirely?In this profoundly thought-provoking and revealing book, Hustvedt takes the reader on her journey through psychiatry, philosophy, neuroscience and medical history in search of a diagnosis. Conveying the often frightening mysteries of illness, she illuminates the perennially mysterious connection between mind and body and what we mean by 'I'.'She has an enviable ability to digest and reframe her discoveries into clear, accessible prose' Sunday TelegraphPRAISE FOR SIRI HUSTVEDT:'Hustvedt is that rare artist, a writer of high intelligence, profound sensuality and a less easily definable capacity for which the only word I can find is wisdom' Salman Rushdie'It is Hustvedt's gift to write with exemplary clarity of what is by necessity unclear' Hilary Mantel'Her novels have received a deserved acclaim. But to my mind, she is even more to be admired as an essayist . . . in this regard I feel that she resembles Virginia Woolf ' Observer'Few contemporary writers are as satisfying and stimulating to read as Siri Hustvedt' Washington Post