About the Book
Olivia Walker’s third-person narration tells her story through the eyes of a woman riding the New York City subway. The people she encounters in the train car; a prophetic old woman, a curious child, and a dejected young man compel dreamlike memories and visions from her past to the surface.
A propulsive narrative, weaving through sections of prose and poetry, includes flashes of the past, descriptions of surrealist natural ephemera, and immersive scenes of the different relationships in her life that tip the scale of power dynamics.
Walker describes the experience of mental illness, considering triggers and origins, with impeccable clarity and elegance, gripping the reader in her reality like a trance. Her candor paves the way for others to maybe, just maybe, feel less alone.
Features & Details
- Primary Category: Biographies & Memoirs
- Additional Categories Poetry, Inspiration
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Project Option: 6×9 in, 15×23 cm
# of Pages: 296 -
Isbn
- Hardcover, Dust Jacket: 9798211678170
- Publish Date: Dec 27, 2022
- Language English
- Keywords coming of age, OCD, Mental health
About the Creator
Olivia Walker is a visual artist and writer, born in New York City and raised predominantly in California. Her work portrays her experience with OCD, and her practice has aided her in finding solace. She has learned to embrace the positive qualities that stem from the diagnosis. In her writing; her narrative of scene and summary, her poetry, and complex literary pieces, she considers and addresses a multitude of struggles: obsessions, compulsions, triggers, and depersonalization/derealization that come with OCD. She strives to find the balance between the grotesque and beautiful and discomfort and solace. She investigates the dialogue and dichotomy between intimacy and opposition, structure and ruin, reality and unreality, and inner battles with order and chaos. She hopes her intricate, picturesque, vulnerable, metaphorical, and insightful writing can act as exposure and a tool for moving on, accepting, and escaping her past, as well as a platform to de-stigmatize mental illness.