Gargoyles
GargoylesHarriet Mercer

Gargoyles (2021)

Harriet Mercer

Creators: Loved

Six weeks after her fortieth birthday, Harriet is struck by a rare and lifethreatening illness. What follows is a long, painful and arduous stay at Charing Cross Hospital. From the first day in Critical Care, whenever Harriet tries to sleep, the backs of her eyes come alive with soul-sucking gargoyles; she remains awake for the entire six weeks. Such wakefulness produces its own hallucinations: the gargoyles become metaphors for lurking demons, fear of death, her relationship with her late father, and her dream of having a family. A stunning blend of poetic memoir and essays, Gargoyles explores the effects of illness, grief, love, and loss, but is also about the power of memory, which both haunts and enriches. It asks us to celebrate that which is in front of us, not taking our lives and health for granted. Sometimes, this means we have to learn to live with the gargoyles.

ISBN:
9781915368157

Genres: nonfiction

Lists: …

Reviews1

Loved

Gargoyles by Harriet Mercer which follows a woman who had previously been very well and had an acute health crisis and we look at again her within this crisis the way that she's managed by it by the systems that she's in and how her body becomes something that is feels quite foreign to her at times

Review 1 of 2

Similar books

James BaldwinSince its original publication in 1955, this first nonfiction collection of essays by James Baldwin remains an American classic. His impassioned essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and African Americans abroad are as powerful today as when they were first written. “A straight-from-the-shoulder writer, writing about the troubled problems of this troubled earth with an illuminating intensity.” —Langston Hughes, The New York Times Book Review “Written with bitter clarity and uncommon grace.” —Time

Why?

What made the match, strongest first

  • Loved by creators6 reviews
  • Also nonfiction79%
  • Sophie Islington loved both13%
  • Similar descriptions8%