Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for Tell Me Everything You Don't Remember by Christine Hyung-Oak Lee - Available

Tell Me Everything You Don't Remember

The Stroke That Changed My Life

by Christine Hyung-Oak Lee
Emily Woo Zeller
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available

A memoir of reinvention after a stroke at thirty-three, based on the author's viral Buzzfeed essay

Christine Hyung-Oak Lee woke up with a headache on New Year's Eve 2006. By that afternoon, she saw the world—quite literally—upside down. By New Year's Day, she was unable to form a coherent sentence. And after hours in the ER, days in the hospital, and multiple questions and tests, she learned that she had had a stroke. For months, Lee outsourced her memories to her notebook. It is from these memories that she has constructed this frank and compelling memoir.

In a precise and captivating narrative, Lee navigates fearlessly between chronologies, weaving her childhood humiliations and joys together with the story of the early days of her marriage; and then later, in painstaking, painful, and unflinching detail, her stroke and every upset, temporary or permanent, that it causes.

Lee processes her stroke and illuminates the connection between memory and identity in an honest, meditative, and truly funny manner, utterly devoid of self-pity. And as she recovers, she begins to realize that this unexpected and devastating event provides a catalyst for coming to terms with her true self.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 14, 2017

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780062669957
      • File size: 214401 KB
      • Duration: 07:26:40

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Christine Hyung-Oak Lee's life becomes disjointed and fragmented when she suffers a stroke at the age of 33. She relies on her diaries to shed light on these events, and Emily Woo Zeller's timing and slightly detached tone are true to the stream-of-consciousness quality of the writing. By necessity, this time in Lee's life is repetitive as she re-learns the same things over and over about her diagnosis, treatment, and even the first page of SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE. Zeller successfully conveys Lee's feeling of being lost in time and space. But the jumps in time can be confusing as Lee recalls her courtship with her husband, self-loathing in college, postpartum depression, and divorce. At times, Zeller's performance sounds a little too enthusiastic for the trauma described, but her expressions of the flirtation and excitement of courtship are just lovely. A.B. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
    • Kirkus

      November 15, 2016
      The stroke that hit Lee at age 33 left no visible signs of trauma, but it still changed her life forever.A decade ago, the stealthy heart condition secretly lurking deep within the author since birth created a blood clot that shot through her body and lodged itself in her head, where "it killed a part of my brain." Lee was standing in a hardware store parking lot at the time, thinking how odd it was that the shiny red snowblowers on display were suddenly and inexplicably "rotated ninety degrees." What follows is the author's emotionally explicit and intensely circumspect chronicle of how she dealt with what doctors later determined to be a thalamic stroke. "In those first few weeks," writes Lee, "I was lost without knowing I was lost. I was searching with a deep belief that all would be well, not out of resilience or hope but out of ignorant bliss....My world was that [hospital] room, and in that room my struggles had little measured impact." Unable to retain information, suffering from aphasia, and repeatedly rereading the same page of Slaughterhouse-Five over and over again, Lee eventually realized that she had to learn to confront older, deep-seated attitudes about her body and brain. She contemplates the years slavishly devoted to using her prized brain to subdue a seemingly undesirable body. That introspection, in turn, opened new doorways onto troubled relationships with her traumatized parents and increasingly distant husband. Forced to compensate for the dead part of her brain, Lee slowly achieved a new sense of gratitude for the body she had previously so reviled and mistreated. The journey of self-discovery is given an illuminating boost when the hole in her heart is finally repaired. With careful thought and new understanding, the author explores the enduring mind-body connection with herself at the nexus of it all. A fascinating exploration of personal identity from a writer whose body is, thankfully, "no longer at war."

      COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading
The Beehive Library Consortium is a consortium of member libraries and the Utah State Library Division.Funds for this program were made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Parents should be aware that children have access to all materials in the online library. The Beehive Library Consortium does not monitor or restrict your child's selections. It is your responsibility as a parent to be aware of what your child is checking out and viewing.