Beautiful Unbroken: One Nurse's Life (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
NOt nearly finished reading this book but I kind of don't want it to end. It has been that kind of experience. It's past time for a nurse to share her experiences...As nurse, who also grew up in Jersey City ("The heights"), not downtown, I recall the outbreak of AIDS. At the time, I was working in Hoboken so we were seeing alot of it. It was a scary time for health care workers, and the public. It altered health"care" as we knew it. When was the last time, you were examined by a practitioner not wearing gloves? The prose is beautiful. its just a heart warming book. You learn to salve the wounds of others by knowing and remembering how much it hurts to hurt. Often this memory comes from the realization of your past smallness and immaturity, your selfishness, your false victimhood, and your cruel victimization of others. It is often painful to recall or admit, yet this is also the grace of lamenting and grieving over how we have hurt others.It is a gift to read this memoir of one who is connected to healing through knowing well her own hurts. Though Ms Nealon does not claim this, I feel like she is as much a chaplain as she is a nurse. And, she does not hesitate to let the poetry come through. Over and over I underlined places where the poetry took me deeper into the situation."I tried not to think about it, (the way she'd hurt her brother) but it was like barbed wire around my soul." (p 94)"...even when I watched the fathers go back down the hall to the bar or their office I understood and made a bubble of understanding and forgiveness around my host families of death." (p.42)I love the way words and body wisdom go together for Ms Nealon. She learned so much from her writing workshops. One of her teachers was "a gentle woman who was able to make room around a poem and let people talk about, but only if they could do so while continuing to respect where the poem had come from, to honor the impulse of making the poem." p. 47
What do You think about Beautiful Unbroken: One Nurse's Life (2011)?
Beautifully written. Sad. Poignant. Touching. So close in so many ways. Thought provoking.
—cleto
Beautiful and introspective; very honest look at her life and relationships.
—Yoyin
Compelling life, brave lady, always the unexpected!
—linlin303
