Sarah Polley talks about her struggles and her personal events of her life in six essays. I personally didnt care for the present-tense narration. Though it was interesting to learn/ read about her struggles and how she goes through it.



I usually dont rate Memoirs or Autobiographies. But I will give this a rating of a 3⭐️.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Penguin Group The Penguin Press for an advanced copy of this memoir.

Sarah Polley has been acclaimed for her acting, her documentary and movie directing, her film production, and for her activism on many social and women's issues. Add acclaimed author to this list. Polley's memoir, Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory is a collection of essays, six in all telling of various events from Polley's life, how they made her, how she remembered them, and how she faced them.

In her book Sarah Polley discusses subjects that would be expected in a memoir about a person in show business; dealing with stage fright, a famous parent, and starring in television and movies at an early age. However Polley has a lot more to share, she was sickly as a child and also suffered some tragedies, death of her mother one ,and a secret that she had repressed until much later in life. How she remembers and deals with these traumas make up most of the book.

Polley is an excellent writer, who makes Polley's experiences and how Polley handles it very relatable, and real. There was and is no magic wand, Polley had to work and work hard to face what at some point she had decided not to remember. The essays can be rough to read, but at the end could make a difference in a lot of lives.

A different sort of memoir, not the usual ghost written dross that seems written by a committee featuring the subject, the subject's agent, the subject's hanger-ons, the subject's ghost writer, and finally the editor looking for a bestseller and a future bargain book. These essays are all from one person Polley whose life she puts on paper and shares, even more reveals to the reader. Painful, and yet hopeful and very memorable. I look forward to the next project by Sarah Polley no matter what from of media she decides to create in.

Run Towards Danger is an essay collection by actor/writer/director Sarah Polley that delves into the messy topics of trauma, illness, abuse and memory. It's not light reading, but I respected how Polley grappled with how she perceived events at the time and how she feels about them now. She's analytical and sometimes hard on herself. This is not an exercise in "whoa-is-me"-ism. The essay topics include dealing with scoliosis as a child star, her difficult pregnancy and her experience with disgraced CBC personality Jian Ghomeshi. However, the real stunner in this collection is the essay that gives this book its title. It documents her struggles with post-concussion symptoms and how an American doctor's counterintuitive advice eased her symptoms. It's truly inspirational and worth the cover price just by itself.

I am extremely grateful to Sarah Polley for opening up herself in these essays for readers to experience and am thankful to Penguin, Random House, and NetGalley for this book. As I read this book late last night I found myself some what humbled as reviewer to read such a moving set of essays.

This collection of essays the comprise Run Towards the Danger aren't meant to serve as a memoir per se as much as they are truly about a confrontation with a body (physical and mentally) reconciling past experiences, buried memories, and trying to, in my opinion, understand the self if not better than differently via examination of how past experiences did matter, did happen, and should be acknowledged. So much of this memoir rang true for me in terms of seeing the recent past as a time in which I encountered great change in my life that forced me to finally examine my past, my childhood and adult life and relationships, and using words and reflection to process and understand that who I am and how I became this messy work in progress.

There is tremendous elegance in how Ms. Polley structured her essays, such as the integration of quotes from Alice in Wonderland (and books in that series), interactions with mentors and stage acting, in her examination of her relationship with her father and her experience with intense stage fright. Her blending of a bit of research and bigger background into thoughts on the legal system and sexual assault, her very personal examination of the intersection of treatment of infertility and hope with the fears of pregnancy risk and the lack of compassionate connection in some medical settings (very relatable), how becoming a mother brings back memories of the past and navigating parenting in the present means confronting, and accepting, echoes of the past.

This is the memoir that I have in a way always wanted to read not because I can connect with the lived experiences shared, I can't, but because of the way Ms. Polley expresses herself, her thoughts, and is using writing and reflection in such a openly therapeutic, vulnerable, and expressive manner. I felt that I grew through her reflection and so much value the idea that I too should, maybe have been, running towards danger.
I hope many self reflective souls will find value and celebration and awe in this memoir too.

Great book by a celebrated filmmaker which looks at the female body, mothering, work and the film and TV industry. Clear prose and vivid details make this a book to remember.

This book was raw, vulnerable, and deeply moving. Every essay touches on a deeply personal piece of Sarah Polley’s life. Anyone who has seen her documentary Stories We Tell will remember the journey of discovery about her own parentage and the way she unraveled the threads of memory that helped her find the truth . Like that documentary, this book is about our memories - how we remember the hard things in our past, how we tell those stories in the moment of pain and also how - and when - we choose to tell those stories when the sharpness has receded. As she writes in this book “So much of coming to terms with hard things from the past seems to be about believing our own accounts, having our memories confirmed by those who were there and honored by those who weren’t. Why is it so hard for us to believe our own stories or begin to process them without corroborating witnesses appearing from the shadows of the past, or without people stepping forward with open arms when echoes of those stories present themselves again in the present?”

I was amazed by her unflinching honesty. She is willing - and able - to tell us when she feels she failed herself and others. She takes us through her mother’s death and all the ways it impacted her throughout her life. She analyzes her father’s neglectful parenting, her experiences with stage fright, #MeToo, sexual assault, unsafe movie sets, the movie business in general, etc. Every time she speaks of a past experience, you feel her emotions as she felt them. You feel her fear and loneliness. You feel her terror. You feel her innocence being stripped away one experience at a time.

An astounding book I will likely revisit many times.

Run towards the danger has been a line that I have been using with myself and others, since I read this vulnerable memoir by Sarah Polley, writer, director, producer and political activist. Instead of avoiding discomfort, pain and possible consequence, Sarah shares beautifully the misfortunes that her and her body have endured at times, at the hands of others.

This memoir comprised of essays of Sarah Polley reflecting on her life, these events dipping in and out of current and past experiences. She spends much time in her childhood, a child actor, who had her needs dismissed, minimized and overlooked by those that were to protect her. She makes her way through her childhood in constant anxiety working in this world, losing her mother at a young age, and battling pain and surgery due to scoliosis.

As an adult, she is conflicted about coming forward in a sexual assault case, where she was a victim at a young age, abuse that she has kept hidden even from herself for some time. She shares how her body battled endometriosis, placenta previa and an emergency c-section with one of her daughters as she goes through her reproductive years and at last, she opens up to us about a debilitating concussion that took her three years to recover from.

To recover from much of her trauma she could not avoid, she had to move forward, to be curious, to spend time with these memories and feelings, she had to run towards the danger, in order to heal.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Penguin Press for the ARC.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Press for the ebook. Although the author has a lovely marriage with three young daughters, she, like most people, has had her share of misfortunes. With great insight, and a brave honesty, she digs deep into some very specific times in her life. She talks about a devastating concussion that left her half herself for over three years until a full cure becomes possible. Another essay talks about a Canadian trial that features a radio host who has abused several women. The author is torn if she should come forward after having her own abuse that she’s kept hidden from herself for years. And professionally she talks about a near breakdown during the run of a play after her mother’s death, the trauma of a large scale movie that had a million problems and didn’t protect her enough and feeling stuck on a children’s TV show for years that worked her twelve plus hours a day for eight months of the year. Told with grace and humor, the honesty of this stories is pretty amazing.

I loved reading this memoir comprised of essays of Sarah Polley reflecting on her life. She is a gifted writer and I hope she writes more books.