Reading the Waves

Praise for Reading the Waves

“[A] quicksilver, expansive exploration of grief and hauntings.” —Vanity Fair

“Provocative and expansive. . . Joy, sorrow, rage, fear, guilt, lust, adoration — it’s all there in equal parts. The book empowers us to consider: When we look back at our pasts, how comfortable are we with seeing who we really were and embracing that version of ourself, however flawed? Perhaps more important, how do we shed the parts of us we no longer find useful to become something new?“—The San Francisco Chronicle

“Reading the Waves dives deep into Yuknavitch’s history with violence and trauma to deliver a resonate message of storytelling’s power to reframe our memories and shape our future. Perfect for readers and writers alike, this memoir is a testament to our ability to learn and heal through the stories we choose to tell.” —Chicago Review of Books

“Yuknavitch reminds us, through the ordinary act of living, of resisting, of storytelling, we can put old pain down. New stories, different ones, are going to emerge. We have the power to reshape ourselves.” —Alta Journal

“Reading Lidia Yuknavitch is like taking in a painting. Everything in her novels and memoirs appears before you at once, and you’re free to pick up whatever threads pull you. And they will pull you . . . This [is] a trip into her past to reframe and complicate the sea that is her story.” — The Portland Monthly

“Reading the Waves is another no-bullshit Yuknavitch memoir with a strengthened maturity alongside the grace and curiosity of an artist.” —Willamette Week

“Another bracing, daring memoir . . . In many ways a book-length ode to the power of craft, Yuknavitch continues on with the legacy she’s creating: the need for brutal honesty to pave the way for a brighter path.”—LitHub, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year

“A memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch is never just a memoir.”—Electric Literature, A Most Anticipated Queer Book of the Year

“Remarkable … [T]he author decides to approach her own past like a favorite book, hoping this approach might ‘loosen’ those memories’ grip on her psyche today. The eclectic results won’t just move those who already follow [Yuknavitch], but will inspire readers to revisit their own lives with as much care and creativity.”—Bustle

“Stunning, genre-bending self-portrait…With a fiercely feminist outlook and moody, evocative prose that never tilts into preciousness, Yuknavitch delivers a gorgeous ode to the grunt work of self-discovery. It’s a major achievement.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“In fiction and memoir alike, Lidia Yuknavitch impresses with her audacious subject matters… This vibrant work of self-revelation and -mythologizing is ideal for fans of Pam Houston and Rebecca Solnit.” —Shelf Awareness, starred review

“At turns emotional and darkly hilarious … this memoir is rich ground and a magnificent narrative about memory, trauma, and healing. Fans of genre-bending or lyrical memoir will enjoy this multilayered meditation leveraging Yuknavitch’s creativity, thoughtfulness, and sense of wonder.” —Booklist, starred review

“Brilliant, unflinching, and written with the same heady, literary sophistication as Yuknavitch’s novels. Compounded by real moments of narrative vulnerability, this memoir is as much an act of dismembering as it is of remembering.” —Library Journal, starred review

“A noted writer and teacher explores the uses of memoir to recast and heal the wounds of the past. . . [Reading the Waves is] full of the messy, moving, in-your-face inspiration and storytelling for which Yuknavitch is beloved.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A master class on how to hold your body’s stories with tenderness as well as how to let go, Reading the Waves is a sigh of compassion. This book bleeds empathy in the most vulnerable and profound of ways. It’s gorgeous.” —Stephanie Land, author of Maid and Class

“Reading the Waves is electrifying. In it, Lidia Yuknavitch interrogates memory, both as an act and a concept—remembering becomes a process of re-membering, of revivifying and reassembling a moment, a story, or a body. Yuknavitch invites us to dive deep into the waters of grief and imagination, love and violence, then guides us back up to the surface where we breathe a little freer and can see both the possibilities of the past and future horizons anew. Yuknavitch is a literary renegade, exploding the borders of genre and radically reimagining the stories we carry as acts of resistance.” —Suleika Jaouad, author of Between Two Kingdoms

“What makes us return to Yuknavitch again and again is her searing honesty, wide-open compassion, and sensual engagement with this earthly realm. Reading the Waves is brilliant storytelling by one of our most adventurous creatives. It is an investigation into how our stories must shift to accommodate each age, each generation, even as they remain mythically rooted in the ancient archetypal shapes of human transformation. This is a book you will return to again and again for the wild astuteness of its wisdom.”—Joy Harjo, 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate

“Yuknavitch is a lighthouse, strobing her insistent truth across any distance. I have learned so much from her about storytelling, survival, and the ways that tenderness and strength are siblings. I’ll read anything she writes.”—Melissa Febos, author of Girlhood