Know My Name
2019
- biography & memoir
- nyt:combined-print-and-e-book-nonfiction=2019-10-13
- women, crimes against
- rape victims
- women, united states, biography
- biography
- women
- crimes against
- rape in universities and colleges
- judicial error
The story
She was known to the world as Emily Doe when she stunned millions with a letter. Brock Turner had been sentenced to just six months in county jail after he was found sexually assaulting her on Stanford’s campus. Her victim impact statement was posted on Buzzfeed, where it instantly went viral – viewed by eleven million people within four days, it was translated globally and read on the floor of Congress; it inspired changes in California law and the recall of the judge in the case. Thousands wrote to say that she had given them the courage to share their own experiences of assault for the first time. Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. It was the perfect case, in many ways - there were eyewitnesses, Turner ran away, physical evidence was immediately secured. But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life. KNOW MY NAME will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. It also introduces readers to an extraordinary writer, one whose words have already changed our world. Entwining pain, resilience, and humor, this memoir will stand as a modern classic. ([source][1]) [1]: http://chanel-miller.com/books
What it’s like
Clear, unhurried first-person prose that moves between close interior reflection and sharp, observant scenes, with a voice that stays precise even when it turns wry. The pages are plain and intimate, built from memory and courtroom detail rather than lush description, so the sensory world feels pared back and close to the body. The overall feel is steady, candid and bruised but warm, a book to read in one long sitting or slowly across a quiet week. Pacing is deliberate, with long reflective passages alternating with direct, unsparing accounts of the aftermath. The emotional register braids grief and anger with humor and tenderness, and its arc follows a woman reclaiming her sense of self and her voice after a public, painful ordeal. Intensity is heavy: it describes sexual assault directly but not graphically, along with the trauma, shame and institutional indifference that follow. There is no gore, but the subject is hard and the emotional weight is sustained, so it does not suit anyone wanting something gentle or escapist. For readers who want a clear-eyed memoir about justice, survival and the power of speaking out, and who can sit with difficult material.
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