College Girl: A Memoir - Hardcover

Gray-Rosendale, Laura

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1438447094 ISBN 13: 9781438447094

Publisher: Excelsior Editions/State University of New York Press, 2013

Synopsis

In College Girl, a university professor revisits the memory of a brutal sexual assault, recounting her long, circuitous route from trauma to recovery. Offering present-day reflections alongside the hopeful voice of the twenty-year-old student she once was, Gray-Rosendale tells the story of her near destruction, but also one of abiding friendships and shining hope. College Girl is also a story about stories, and a meditation on memoir itself. Artfully written and devoid of self-pity, College Girl is a rich story of triumph, hope, and survival.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"College Girl is a monumental achievement that ranges from memoir to cultural critique to documentary nonfiction, but it's also a stunning study in prose stylings that reaches from the sublime to the grotesque. Lyrical, repulsive, elegant, and hideous,  College Girl is expressed in language so thought-provoking, so astute, that we cannot help but be right there with her. I urge all of us to engage with and learn from this deeply important book--and never, ever forget." -- Kass Fleisher, author of Dead Woman Hollow

"Words like 'brave' or 'honest' usually used to describe a memoir of trauma and recovery don't even come close to capturing this searingly painful, unflinchingly self-reflective, and painstakingly subtle memoir. With not a hint of self-congratulation, and in language as jagged-edged as the events themselves, coupled with long languid reflective passages, College Girl achieves something truly rare and unsettling--a story of such brutality that is also, oddly, almost beautiful in its telling." -- Michael Kimmel, author of Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men

From the Inside Flap:

"College Girl is an exceptionally well-written, gripping rarity. Though the book tells the story of a horrific rape, it is, in fact, about the attack's aftermath--for its perpetrator, its victim, each of their families, and beyond. It is about the dividing line between bravery and cowardice. It is about human beings behaving extraordinarily, under almost unthinkable circumstances. By relentlessly continuing to expand her examination beyond herself, Laura Gray-Rosendale has created something of great importance not only to individuals, but to society." -- Evan Handler, actor ("Sex and the City," "Californication") as well as author of Time on Fire: My Comedy of Terrors

About this edition

• Publisher: Excelsior Editions/State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1438447094
• ISBN 13: 9781438447094
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 277