Black Eye

by Strasser, Judith

• ISBN13: 9780299199302
• ISBN10: 0299199304
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Pr

Summary

Seventeen years after she married, Judith Strasser escaped her emotionally and physically abusive husband and sought a better way to live. In the process, Strasser rediscovered what she had suppressed through that long span of time: exceptional strength and a passion for writing. Black Eyeincludes excerpts from a journal Strasser kept from 1985 to1986, the year she made the decision to leave her marriage, and present-day commentary on the journal passages and her family history. Strasser works like a detective investigating her own life, drawing clarity and power from journal passages, dreams, and memories that originally emerged from confusion and despair. With language that is both insightful and poetic, she reveals the psychological and social circumstances that led a "strong" woman, an intelligent and politically active feminist, to become an emotionally dependent, abused wife. Not coincidentally, the same year that Strasser finally found the courage to leave her husband, she also reclaimed her creative voice. Newly empowered and energized by this enormous life change, Strasser began writing again after twenty-five silent years dominated by her mother's illness and death, her own cancer, and her painful, fearful marriage.Black Eyeis one of the fruits of this creative reawakening. Strasser's writing is refreshingly honest and instantly engrossing. Not shy of wretchedness or beauty, Strasser's story is bitterly personal, ultimately triumphant, and inspiring to all who deal with the adversity that is part of human life.

Author Biography

Judith Strasser is a freelance writer who conducts poetry and memoir writing workshops for adults and children. From 1992 to 2000 Strasser was senior producer and interviewer for To the Best of Our Knowledge, a nationally distributed public radio program. Judith’s poems and essays have appeared in Poetry, The Kenyon Review, Nimrod, Prairie Schooner, Witness and other literary magazines and anthologies; her book-length collection, How to Stay Alive, has been a finalist in several national book competitions.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
Unpleasant Truths	3	(15)
Questions of Politics	18	(21)
Intimate Strangers	39	(14)
Losses	53	(21)
True Colors	74	(23)
Clear Vision	97	(26)
Standards of Performance	123	(12)
Selective Attention	135	(24)
Tokens of Love	159	(12)
Diffidence	171	(22)
"Jumped for It"	193	(15)
Jekyll and Hyde	208	(14)
Halcyon Days	222	(18)
Cause and Effect	240	(19)
Trouble on Its Way	259	(30)
Enormous Rage	289	(25)
The Gift	314	(27)
Afterword	341	(6)
References	347	(2)
Acknowledgments	349

Excerpts

"Stu and I stand in the laundry room in the basement of our first house in Madison. He raises his hand and slaps me, hard. Why? Are we arguing about the layer of lint on the dryer?  Is he angry because there’s laundry detergent caked around the rim of the washing machine? . . . Did I scream at him about something that had nothing to do with clothes? What I remember: my stinging cheek."—Excerpt from Black Eye

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Excerpted from Black Eye: Escaping a Marriage, Writing a Life by Judith Strasser
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.