Overview

A collection of essays full of startling directness, fearlessness, and surprise. Filled with profound reflections and snapshots from the past, Karen Chase's History is Embarrassing weaves together threads from one single life—a girl suffering from polio, a poet, a Jewish woman, a writer, and a painter. Like Chase, the characters who populate these essays are outsiders—undercover cops, a gay couple in 1500s India, bear poachers, psychiatric patients, and even a president—each a meaningful part of history. Divided into three parts—histories, pleasures, and horrors—History is Embarrassing is an assortment of thought-provoking essays that are sure to resonate with many readers.

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9781960327024

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Reviews

“In the early ’50s, during the polio epidemic, I worked as a physical therapist. I saw firsthand the crushing suffering children and their families endured. I also saw their bravery and love for each other. Karen’s memoir is a truly remarkable piece of history.” * Olympia Dukakis * “Karen Chase has put together an absolutely fascinating edition of the log describing Franklin Roosevelt’s winter cruises along the Florida coast in 1924-26. Wonderfully illustrated and edited, this is a book that will appeal to historians, FDR aficionados, Floridians, fishermen, and boaters of all kinds. Highly recommended.” * Nathaniel Philbrick, author of 'In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex' *

Author Information

Karen Chase is the author of two collections of poems, Kazimierz Square and BEAR as well as Jamali-Kamali, a book-length homoerotic poem, and the memoirs Land of Stone, Polio Boulevard, and FDR On His Houseboat: The Larooco Log, 1924-1926. She and her husband live in Western Massachusetts. Visit her online at www.karenchase.com.  

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