cover image Transformation Soup: Healing for the Splendidly Imperfect

Transformation Soup: Healing for the Splendidly Imperfect

Sark. Fireside Books, $16 (160pp) ISBN 978-0-684-85976-7

Since the early 1990s, SARK's playful, sympathetic style has made her an immensely popular author of self-help and creativity books. Like her past works (How to Change Your Life Without Getting Out of Bed; Succulent Wild Woman; etc.), this vividly illustrated guide speaks to the reader's ""innerchild,"" aiming to free the imperfect, fearful, sad, funny and creative aspects that adults usually hide. This time SARK addresses the process of healing, inquiring, ""What Hurts?"" and gently leading readers to places (gardens, Zen retreat centers, bed) and activities (meditation, massage, creative expression) that promote recovery. With dark tales of her own experience of incest, and goofy ones, including one about Rosie O'Donnell's chin hair, SARK's book reflects the ""friendly disorder"" of being human, covering a wide range of topics, from the trauma of broken relationships to body image and aging. Along with her heartfelt ruminations, SARK offers book referrals, transformation stories and a reference list of healers, including massage therapists, hairstylists, musicians and authors. In one fanciful section, she imagines the lessons a healing school might teach, including intuition, ""non-competitive play,"" ""accepting success"" and ""identifying patterns of self-defeat."" All the while, she pushes readers toward their own creative expression through exercises such as ""turning [inner] critics into allies"" and marrying oneself. SARK's unpretentious effort illustrates her fundamental theme that ""we are all swirling in the soup together"" and that ""whatever healing work we each do contributes to the healing of all of us."" (May)