#SMILE BOOK FULL#

This is the story of my asking it to come back. Ten years ago, my smile walked off my face, and wandered out in the world. Brimming with insight, humility, and levity, Smile is a triumph by one of America’s leading playwrights. She explores the struggle of a body yearning to match its inner landscape, the pain of postpartum depression, the story of a marriage, being a playwright and working mom to three small children, and the desire for a resilient spiritual life in the face of illness.Īn intimate and “stunning” ( Publishers Weekly, starred review) examination of loss and reconciliation, “Ruhl reminds us that a smile is not just a smile but a vital form of communication, of bonding, of what makes us human” ( The Washington Post). In a series of piercing, profound, and lucid meditations, Ruhl chronicles her journey as a patient, wife, mother, and artist. So Ruhl begins an intense decade-long search for a cure while simultaneously grappling with the reality of her new face-one that, while recognizably her own-is incapable of accurately communicating feelings or intentions. And for a woman, wife, mother, and artist working in theater, the paralysis and the disconnect between the interior and exterior brings significant and specific challenges.

#SMILE BOOK FULL#

She is assured that 90 percent of Bell’s palsy patients experience a full recovery-like Ruhl’s own mother. With a play opening on Broadway, and every reason to smile, Sarah Ruhl has just survived a high-risk pregnancy when she discovers the left side of her face is completely paralyzed.

* A People Best Book of the Year * Time and The Washington Post’s Most Anticipated List * Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence *įrom the MacArthur genius, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and playwright, this “captivating, insightful memoir” ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review) is “a beautiful meditation on identity and how we see ourselves” ( Real Simple).

Smile book