The Body Alone

This story can be hard to read at times, a true story of Chronic Pain and what it truly looks and feels like. I loved the way that Nina chose to write her story lyrically. As someone with chronic pain, I found a lot to relate to,

This is a story of pain. Some parts are, at the very least, uncomfortable to read, but so important. She describes her pain lyrically and in metaphors because how else can you describe it? Lohman is brutally honest about what it's like to suffer from chronic pain, which I can relate to and say it's the most seen I've felt when reading about it. I recommend not only to those experiencing chronic illness, but especially to those who love someone who has a chronic illness.

I live with pain everyday so this read was very relatable to me and it was beautifully written all the way through.

This is an astonishing, gritty, and gripping meditation on chronic pain.

As a young woman, the author suddenly develops a headache, literally out of nowhere. The book chronicles about a decade of a search for the cause, to no avail. Recounted in a stream of consciousness manner, the reader enters not only her journey to various medical practioners and alternative therapies, interspersed with a fascinating and exhaustive history of the study of pain, especially women’s pain. She clearly has chronic pain of unknown origin. My heart broke as I went on this journey with her.

This is not an easy book to read and not for the faint of heart. But if you want to almost, but not quite, experience the difficult journey of a person with chronic pain, this book is worth your time.

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley. It was a privilege to read.

This was a beautifully written glimpse into the life of the author as she lives with chronic pain of unknown origin. The author tells the story lyrically instead of as straight prose which allows a lot more freedom in the telling, and she doesn't hesitate to bring you right into her story. As someone who has a chronic health condition that took years of my life and lots of trial and error to come to some kind of understanding of I really felt for the author and could see echos of my story in hers. I thankfully have more answers and better treatments than the author but still can empathize with her and understand a lot of where she takes us on this journey. I especially connected with the idea that as a woman she was constantly second guessed and provided treatments that were designed around the physiology of men. In our healthcare system women are still in many ways an afterthought and this puts us at a disadvantage in so many ways, but especially when it comes to getting true answers and help.

Using her voice to help others better understand the journey of chronic pain is one way she is taking back her life and that is evidence in this book and I applaud her for being brave enough to bring it to the world.

I received an advanced copy of this book from netgalley. All opinions are my own.

The Body Alone: A Lyrical Articulation of Chronic Pain (University of Iowa Press, 2024) is an immersive, experiential memoir of chronic pain rendered through Nina Lohman's poetic lens.

Her rapt, sensory imagery, and emotional vicissitudes throughout her diagnostic experience—years of pain layered upon bricks of further pain—often render the reader mute—not with pity, but with acknowledgment.

While wrestling with Susan Sontag’s evergreen Illness as Metaphor (1978), Lohman also wonders about the language still bandied about related to women’s bodies and health. The poster of male bodies predominantly shown on the back of doctor’s room doors. She also recognizes her own whiteness, education, health insurance, and place to rest her furiously aching head each night.

Her book is a rallying cry to all the women out there—our sisters, mothers, daughters, friends, aunts, and nieces. What semblance of a life are we even living? What can we take as our own? What can we give each other?

And what grotesque, beautiful, and curious perplexities do we chronic pain women proffer diagnosticians who, appointment after appointment, have no box to check?

Thank you to Nina Lohman, University of Iowa Press, and NetGalley for the eARC.

Beautiful lyrical descriptions on living with chronic pain and invisible illness, felt very seen reading this and underlined so many quotes

Nina Lohman was a young theology graduate student when she suddenly developed chronic headache pain. In The Body Alone, she describes her experience of chronic pain while playing with different literary forms. I loved her creative expression and how she incorporated her passion for storytelling, mythology, and linguistics among other disciplines. Although she lost me occasionally, it was a fascinating journey.

I didn’t learn much from this book, but I did enjoy reading it. For those of us who suffer chronic pain, reading this memoir can feel validating. As the author warns in the beginning, this is not a linear story, and it doesn’t end well. However, the author survives and finds another version of life to replace the one that pain stole from her, and we can do the same.

For those who haven’t experienced chronic pain, I think reading this book will help them better understand what chronic pain is like.

Recommended for those who enjoy creative nonfiction.

Thanks to University Of Iowa Press for providing me with an unproofed ARC through NetGalley. I volunteered to provide an honest review.

Nina Lohman has very bravely and very beautifully described what it is like to live with chronic pain and how it affects every aspect of her daily life. As someone who has chronic pain, I identify so much with this book but it was very uplifting and positive in many ways.

Ms Lohman has pain of unknown origin and the book considers her experiences with healthcare professionals and the mess that is the American health industry. She shows how the impact of chronic pain is ‘felt’ by all the people in her circle and captures perfectly the need to escape the pain and be ‘normal’.

The book isn’t a chronological memoir. It diverts and digresses and is all the better for it. The audience for this is wide - it should be read by all healthcare professionals, by people who know someone with chronic pain, and by "sufferers" themselves. Each would benefit greatly from this beautifully written work.

I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley