Grab the Lapels

Audiobook Mini Review: Smile by Sarah Ruhl

About mini reviews:

Maybe you’re not an audio book person, or maybe you are. I provide mini reviews of audio books and give a recommendation on the format. Was this book improved by a voice actor? Would a physical copy have been better? Perhaps they complement each other? Read on. . .

Before reading Smile, I was not familiar with Sarah Ruhl’s work. She’s a well-known playwright, and at one point she comments that Philip Seymour Hoffman attended one of her shows. So, you know, she’s Philip Seymour Hoffman-level famous. Ruhl’s memoir goes on tangents, but the main point is that after the birth of her twins, she experienced Bell’s Palsy, which continued for ten years.

This was a hard book to follow because the author, who also reads her memoir in a clear, perfectly-fine voice, wants to include more than her topic yet fails to show the reasoning. For example, she writes about her father’s cancer diagnosis, which could influence her current emotions about Bell’s Palsy, except he died years ago. Also, she explains her sketchy history as an on-again, off-again Catholic, and while she prayed about her face paralysis, it didn’t require a background story of growing up Catholic. While Ruhl’s discover that she has Celiac disease stemmed from being diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy, she makes much about it. I felt the author was trying to stretch what was meant to be an article by discussing tangential topics with an air of wonder, mystery, and poetry — that such topics did not deserve.

When Ruhl does return to the distress she feels because her face doesn’t match her emotions, she breezes through her professional and personal success: writing and putting on plays in New York, a supportive husband, premature twins that grow healthy, and access to health care — both the scientific and the woo-woo kind. If you want to read about an able-bodied, financially secure white lady bemoan a droopy eyelid and inability to smile how she used to, you may want to check out this book.

On the other hand, Smile received positive reviews and has 4 stars on Goodreads. Ruhl’s experience with partial facial paralysis may speak to generations of women raised to be appearance focused. Certainly, all people raised as girls and women get subliminal and direct messages about beauty, but the conversation has changed drastically in the last fifteen years at least, so it’s hard to take Smile seriously when Bell’s Palsy does not affect the author’s ability to work, parent, and be a good partner.

15 comments

  1. It’s too bad when an author tries to fit too much in and then kind of fails to make it all work. I wonder how this book would come across for some one with a more personal experience of Bell’s palsy.

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  2. Sarah Ruhl is certainly Philip Seymour Hoffman-level famous to me, I have not the faintest idea who either of them is.

    Love your summary: “an able-bodied, financially secure white lady bemoan[s] a droopy eyelid”. I’d give this a miss just to avoid the whole Catholic prayer bit. Or was she providing evidence that prayer doesn’t work.

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    • Haha Bill, Philip Seymour Hoffman is known to me through a few films, but most memorably as playing Truman Capote in Capote.

      It sounds, Melanie, like the author did not really know what point she wanted to make in her memoir, that she didn’t have a driving thread? I think you justify, in your post, your point that it sounds more like an essay stretched out to something bigger. Was she a good reader of her own story (besides being clear)?

      I have a friend who suddenly got Bell’s Palsy, in her 60s. It has gradually subsided, so that now I think you can barely notice it. She handled it pretty well, because it didn’t affect her ability to carry out her life (nowhere near as much as things like breaking her wrist, having a knee replacement, and then having her husband die suddenly, all of which also happened in the same decade!)

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      • I mentioned to Bill just now that Philip Seymour Hoffman was in a beautiful Adam Elliot film, too.

        You got it right; Ruhl just didn’t have enough to say about her face other than it bothered her. I don’t know that her reading of it was mind blowing by any means. It was just reading.

        How awful for your friend to have so many things happen to her rapid fire. I want to say “I hope she’s okay!” but that sounds ridiculous at this point. My dad banged his head on his dragline (the man does not wear safety gear) and the result was a bruise on his brain that caused Bell’s Palsy. His went away, too.

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        • Thanks Melanie, particularly re my friend. It is and yet also isn’t ridiculous to ask if she’s ok. So, I’ll answer. She’s a strong person so she is ok, but that’s not to say she isn’t suffering because she is in pain. It’s though when things pile up. However she has two great children (one in our city), a sister with whom she is very close, and good friends.

          I’m glad your Dad’s BP went away too.

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    • As for the Catholicism, she was explaining how she was raised Catholic, so now, as an adult, it almost works like wishful thinking, like perhaps she could draw on some magic, as opposed to any organized religious practices.

      Philip Seymour Hoffman was actually in a famous Australian movie by Adam Elliot called Mary & Max. It’s beautiful and thoughtful; don’t let the claymation throw you off, as it is definitely not a children’s movie.

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