Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation

This is an excellent book for disabled queers like myself, and the author, Eli Clare. The book is easily read--Clare uses language that is not pretentious, but establishes a voice that is eloquently compelling. "Exile" masquerades as autobiographical but contains a powerful critique of the social constructions of class, disability, sexuality, race, gender, the environment and just about everything else you could imagine (I know this might seem impossible--but Clare accomplishes it in this wonderful book). I highly recommend this book.

Clare writes her autobiography in word paintings. Clare explores the multiple differences of disability, queerness, transgenderism, abuse, socioeconomic class, and gender with reflection that empowers rather than victimizes or blames. While considering how the history around her has shaped the world and affected who she is, she considers how she has shaped the world. Clare refuses to collapse the intricate complexities of life into something more managable.

I found this book really interesting. Her writing style is beautiful, and she has an almost poetical style in places.Eli is a disabled woman. She has cerebral palsy. She talks about the exclusion she experienced - the exile - in a rural town in Oregon. She also talks about being abused, and this deeply personal story is very powerful.Eli also feels in exile because she is an environmentalist - from a rural background. Among environmentalist, she feels an outsider, since most of them are city people.Eli is also a lesbian. She has felt excluded from that community too.Although I haven't done it justice by listing all the things she feels exile from, this is not a negative book. It is actually a very positive book - it talks abuot developing pride in who you are, accepting yourself, being a preson with lots of layers to their personality, etcEli also talks about wider issues - like the social model of disability, pressure to be a "supercrip", disclosing rape and being rejected by your family when you do so, etc.When I finished the book, I decided to read it again, straight away so that I didn't forget what it said. (I have memory problems). I live in Australia, and this woman lives in Oregon. But after reading this book, I just wished I could meet her. And I think that's one of the best recommmendations you can give a book!

Clare weaves personal experiences with politicalideologies--clarifying connecting issues and pointing out thesimilarities and challenges that we face in working through them. Thisbook struck me at emotional and mental levels and has left me with a great deal to think about. One excellent aspect is how to she explains that solutions may never be as simple as we want them to be, but taking the time to understand multiple stories and multiple levels of truth will help us to reach new heights of achievement and equality. I would also strongly recomment Pushing the Limits, ed by Shelley Tremain and Restricted Access, ed by Victoria Brownworth--both collections of works by a diverse group of queer women with disabilities.

Eli Clare writes with passion, insight and a poet's sense of language. This is a difficult book to describe as it contains a series of interlinking essays which explore disability, environmentalism, being queer, being gendered, abuse and the meaning of home. As I read this description, I realize it somehow shrinks the real scope of the work and makes it sound like a dry discourse. The reality is that Eli talks about all of these issues through the lens of her own experiences as a lesbian with cerebral palsy who feels deep and abiding love for her childhood home on a river in Oregon. Reading this book, is like having the most delicious and thought provoking conversation with a good friend. It leaves one thinking for days. I've been passing it around my group of friends to rave reviews by all.