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Ladyparts

A Memoir

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Ladyparts

By: Deborah Copaken
Narrated by: Deborah Copaken
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About this listen

 A frank, witty, and dazzlingly written memoir of one woman trying to keep it together while her body falls apart—from the “brilliant mind” (Michaela Coel, creator of I May Destroy You) behind Shutterbabe

“The most laugh-out-loud story of resilience you’ll ever read and an essential road map for the importance of narrative as a tool of healing.”—Lori Gottlieb, bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE

I’m crawling around on the bathroom floor, picking up pieces of myself. These pieces are not a metaphor. They are actual pieces.
Twenty years after her iconic memoir Shutterbabe, Deborah Copaken is at her darkly comedic nadir: battered, broke, divorcing, dissected, and dying—literally—on sexism’s battlefield as she scoops up what she believes to be her internal organs into a glass container before heading off to the hospital . . . in an UberPool.

Ladyparts is Copaken’s irreverent inventory of both the female body and the body politic of womanhood in America, the story of one woman brought to her knees by the one-two-twelve punch of divorce, solo motherhood, healthcare Frogger, unaffordable childcare, shady landlords, her father’s death, college tuitions, sexual harassment, corporate indifference, ageism, sexism, and plain old bad luck. Plus seven serious illnesses, one atop the other, which provide the book’s narrative skeleton: vagina, uterus, breast, heart, cervix, brain, and lungs. Copaken bounces back from each bum body part, finds workarounds for every setback—she transforms her home into a commune to pay rent, sells her soul for health insurance, turns FBI informant when her sexual harasser gets a presidential appointment—but in her slippery struggle to survive a steep plunge off the middle-class ladder, she is suddenly awoken to what it means to have no safety net.

Side-splittingly funny one minute, a freak horror show the next, quintessentially American throughout, Ladyparts is an era-defining memoir. Gender Studies Social Sciences Memoir Heartfelt Witty
All stars
Most relevant
Wow, this is an amazing story, a real story full of tears and joy and hurt and happiness; but most of all this tells of hope in our unjust world where sometimes no matter what miracles we work life consists of just the worst. I learnt about the crazy American health system first hand via these amazing words … OMG we are beyond lucky with our NHS (listen to this if you every feel grumpy about wait times this puts everything into perspective); I learnt about the power that lies in every woman’s body no matter the trials it must endure. Highly recommend but be prepared to weep and laugh and learn. To Deborah, thank you for sharing your story, it is a treasure. Well told.

The things I have learnt

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Deborah Copaken is an incredible writer and raconteur. Was totally gripped by this memoir although it’s not for the squeamish. More than anything it’s an indictment of the American healthcare system and the hardship it inflicts on freelance creatives.

Felt incredibly grateful for the NHS after reading this book.

At other points I did want to give the author a stern pep talk because she does keep making the same mistakes over and over again. At times it’s a groundhog day of bad jobs and even worse men. The husband who over the course of several hours is too lazy to go and get her something to eat when she’s starving after major surgery is unbelievably awful.

But despite all that it’s never a downer, it’s a great read.

Terrific

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