A courageous collection of essays by a drama professor explores alcoholism, mental illness, rape and infertility Emilie Pine, 41, is an associate professor of modern drama at University College, Dublin. _Notes to Self,_ her first non-academic book, is a personal, courageous and compulsively readable collection of essays about what it is to be a woman; it explores taboo subjects – infertility, miscarriage, menstruation, self-starvation, the rape she experienced as a teenager and the effects of alcoholism in a family. YOUR BOOK BEGINS WITH A GRIPPING ACCOUNT OF YOUR ALCOHOLIC FATHER WHO IS SUFFERING LIVER FAILURE IN AN UNDER-STAFFED GREEK HOSPITAL. YOU AND YOUR SISTER HAVE TO IMPROVISE AS HIS NURSES. My dad got sick in 2013 – a year of hospitals. The good news is that he is still alive and no longer drinking. But in 2014, I felt the need to get it all out of my head. You know that feeling – a crisis is over, yet it is not over because you’re still experiencing the emotional fallout? I wrote a journal, printed out the pages symbolically, put them in a drawer. Continue reading...
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