First published 1990
The narrator returns in memory to her younger self, a girl growing up in Brooklyn who suffered an eye injury that would alter everything that followed. She examines her childhood and teenage years through this lens, tracing how the physical trauma rippled through her development and relationships. The injury becomes both a literal wound and a metaphor for the ways early experiences mark us. As she moves through her recollections, the narrator weighs how much of who she became can be traced back to that single incident. The story explores the complex relationship between physical limitation and personal identity, between what happens to us and who we choose to be. At its heart, this is a meditation on the stories we tell ourselves about our own lives and the moments that seem to define us forever.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Brooklyn
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
146 pages · Paperback · Minerva
Content warnings: physical-abuse