Smile: The Story of a Face

In this stunning work, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ruhl (44 Poems for You) reflects on her long and arduous battle with Bell’s palsy after giving birth to twins. For about 85% of people, Bell’s palsy, a weakness in facial muscles, lasts for three months or less, yet for an unlucky 5%, it can be long-term. For Ruhl, the condition has persisted for more than a decade. In a series of insightful and witty essays, she provides an unvarnished look at coming to terms with a face that’s paralyzed on one side (“Kissing with one eye open isn’t exactly a peril, but it is strange”); the postpartum depression she dealt with after a complicated pregnancy; and a celiac disease diagnosis that made her give up her beloved bagels. Ruhl juggled all this while simultaneously working in theater and mothering three children under the age of five with her husband. “My years of writing plays tells me that a story requires an apotheosis, a sudden transformation,” she muses. “But my story has been so slow... the nature of the chronic, which resists plot and epiphany.” As she recounts learning to find joy in small things—such as regaining the ability to blink—Ruhl proves that even life at its most mundane can be fascinating. This incredibly inspiring story offers hope where it’s least expected. (Oct.)