In her short debut memoir "Unravelings," Sarah Cheshire use s fragmentation, lyrical verse, flashback, and scavenged primary source documents to recreate a Title IX procedure she was involved in in college after becoming intimately involved with a trusted creative writing professor and mentor. By reentering the complex psychological landscape of this intimate yet taboo relationship, Cheshire attempts to raise questions about external powers' need for clarity in narrative, the often-blurred relationship between interpersonal and institutional trauma, and the ways in which linear memory can become disrupted in the aftermath of trauma.
"Honest and maddening ... Unravelings captures so perfectly the anxiety of being trapped between emotions and not knowing who and when to trust. Almost a "Yellow Wallpaper" essence in how easy it was to empathize with the author's struggle to stay afloat and keep hold of her reality." -Jocelyn Jessop, Goodreads
"The non-linear narrative style portrays precisely how disjointed the character felt throughout her ordeal, how these situations play out in real life, and how they sound upon trying to explain them to others. Cheshire is deft in her handling of such a complex narrative, reflecting through her rhetoric how deep emotional pain can be built, experience by experience, layer upon layer. While complicated, it is never confusing; while convoluted, it is at once exceedingly clear."
July 12, 2017
Fiction Posted July 12, 2017 Featured
Written by Katy Haas
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