Status
Available
Publication
Doubleday (2015), 272 pages
Description
Biography & Autobiography. Medical. Nonfiction. HTML:Haunting, lyrical, unforgettable, Girl in the Dark is a brave new memoir of a life without light. Anna Lyndsey was young and ambitious and worked hard; she had just bought an apartment; she was falling in love. Then what started as a mild intolerance to certain kinds of artificial light developed into a severe sensitivity to all light. Now, at the worst times, Anna is forced to spend months on end in a blacked-out room, where she loses herself in audiobooks and elaborate word games in an attempt to ward off despair. During periods of relative remission, she can venture out cautiously at dawn and dusk into a world that, from the perspective of her cloistered existence, is filled with remarkable beauty. And through it all there is Pete, her love and her rock, without whom her loneliness seems boundless. One day Anna had an ordinary life, and then the unthinkable happened. But even impossible lives, she learns, endure. Girl in the Dark is a tale of an unimaginable fate that becomes a transcendent love story. It brings us to an extraordinary place from which we emerge to see the light and the world anew.… (more)
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User reviews
LibraryThing member akblanchard
Anna Lyndsey (a pseudonym) has a rare skin disordeir that causes her to experience painful burning sensations whenever she encounters light of any kind. As a result, she has spent long days and weeks sitting in the total darkness of a blacked-out room, where her sole diversions are audiobooks and
In Girl in the Dark, Lyndsey describes the loneliness and boredom of her circumscribed life. Her disorder has forced her to give up a promising career in the British civil service, as well as many of the simple pleasures most of us take for granted. Fortunately, she's not completely alone in her affliction; her mother and brother help her when they can, and her boyfriend (later husband) should be nominated for sainthood.
Lyndsey is an appealing writer and seems like a genuine person, but I have to admit that in our post-A Million Little Pieces literary climate, I have some doubts about the candor of this memoir. The medical details are frustratingly vague. I put this part in a spoiler tag because one is not supposed to quote directly from a prepub:A section entitled "Medical" that is meant to look like an excerpt from Lyndsey's medical records, but has no identified author, says, "The patient now reacts not only on the uncovered areas but even through clothing...resulting in severe painful reactions all over the body...The working diagnosis is photo sensitive (sic) seborrhoeic [British spelling] dermatitis...a well-recognized but rare syndrome, which is very frequently extremely disabling" (pp. 6-7). I'm not a dermatologist, but in my cursory searches I haven't found a "well-.recognized but rare syndrome" that matches her description. She calls her disorder "seborrhoeic dermatitis" (British spelling). In my experience, the term "seborrheic dermatitis" (American spelling) is most frequently used to refer to dandruff or cradle cap, neither of which is painful or disabling. Although she has seen a dermatologist, Lyndsey has not vigorously pursued treatment through conventional medicine and claims that she's never even had a skin biopsy. As painful as her disorder is, apparently it does not cause a rash or other disfigurement to her skin.
I obtained an advanced reading copy of this book through my employer with no expectation that I would review it or give it a positive review. I did enjoy reading it. However, once the book is officially published, I am looking forward to reading reviews by medical professionals who can comment on the dermatological aspects of Lyndsey's case.
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word games. Sometimes she goes into a partial remission that allows her, heavily swaddled in layers of clothing, to venture outside at sunset and dawn. But even when she's feeling relatively well, she knows that a painful, months-long relapse may be just around the corner.In Girl in the Dark, Lyndsey describes the loneliness and boredom of her circumscribed life. Her disorder has forced her to give up a promising career in the British civil service, as well as many of the simple pleasures most of us take for granted. Fortunately, she's not completely alone in her affliction; her mother and brother help her when they can, and her boyfriend (later husband) should be nominated for sainthood.
Lyndsey is an appealing writer and seems like a genuine person, but I have to admit that in our post-A Million Little Pieces literary climate, I have some doubts about the candor of this memoir. The medical details are frustratingly vague. I put this part in a spoiler tag because one is not supposed to quote directly from a prepub:
I obtained an advanced reading copy of this book through my employer with no expectation that I would review it or give it a positive review. I did enjoy reading it. However, once the book is officially published, I am looking forward to reading reviews by medical professionals who can comment on the dermatological aspects of Lyndsey's case.
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LibraryThing member terran
This is an amazing and surprisingly uplifting book. Especially surprising because it is a memoir written by a woman so intensely sensitive to light that she is confined to a blacked-out room, isolated and deprived of all natural and artificial light. I found Anna Lyndsey's memoir to be fascinating
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when describing her inner landscape and as she details the word games she has devised to pass the time without going insane. During her rare remissions, she describes the joy of seeing a rose garden at dusk or the touch of rain. Absolutely beautiful Show Less
LibraryThing member nyiper
This book is wonderful---in the sense that Lyndsey, a pen name, provides all of the aspects of the medical condition she is living with---the good, the bad, the ugly---everything. And then, one wonders....how??? How does she go on? And she handles that, too....how, and why, and on and on. What does
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the mind do in complete and total darkness that just goes on and on and on. She does have a brilliant mind but that only takes her so far in her solitary life----a prison of a different sort than one of solitary confinement. This is a remarkable book---even if you simply ask yourself, what would I do? Her husband sounds like a gem---and how perfect that he happens to be a photographer--for those brief times when he can give her tiny pictures of the outside world. An amazing book. I was wishing, as she was, by the end, hoping for a cure for her. Medical conditions with so few who experience the same thing are very hard to treat---as she knows from extensive research. Hope is still out there. Show Less
LibraryThing member DubaiReader
Living in the dark.
This is the memoir of a young woman who became so allergic to light that she was forced to live large parts of her life in a darkened room, emerging at dusk to go for a walk or attempt any sort of normality. What started out as a sensitivity to the light emitted by her computer
Throughout these trials she was supported by her boyfriend, Pete, who stuck by her and eventually married her, even after the first marriage ceremony had had to be cancelled due to the worsening of her condition. He was really a genuine, sympathetic guy who gave her a reason to go on.
During the bad periods she was dependent on audio-books, which was kind of appropriate as I was listening to this on Audible myself. I totally related to her observation that "When I finish a book, I find I cannot start another one immediately. Each book needs time to settle in my mind, to be digested like a meal of many courses. It seems disrespectful to the characters to move on too quickly — after all, I have spent hours in their company, learnt their histories, looked on at significant moments of their lives."
One thing I didn't enjoy about this memoir was the involved description of word games, which I couldn't gloss over as it was being narrated, but otherwise Anna's condition and her battle to deal with it, did hold my attention; I can't imagine how awful it would be to have to live your whole life in the dark and I hope she eventually manages to find a cure.
This is the memoir of a young woman who became so allergic to light that she was forced to live large parts of her life in a darkened room, emerging at dusk to go for a walk or attempt any sort of normality. What started out as a sensitivity to the light emitted by her computer
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screen, gradually developed into a severe reaction to all forms of light, apparently with no cure. At one point I felt that the treatment she received had actually aggravated her condition, though she didn't say exactly that. When in the light her skin would burn with such severe pain that could take days to subside.Throughout these trials she was supported by her boyfriend, Pete, who stuck by her and eventually married her, even after the first marriage ceremony had had to be cancelled due to the worsening of her condition. He was really a genuine, sympathetic guy who gave her a reason to go on.
During the bad periods she was dependent on audio-books, which was kind of appropriate as I was listening to this on Audible myself. I totally related to her observation that "When I finish a book, I find I cannot start another one immediately. Each book needs time to settle in my mind, to be digested like a meal of many courses. It seems disrespectful to the characters to move on too quickly — after all, I have spent hours in their company, learnt their histories, looked on at significant moments of their lives."
One thing I didn't enjoy about this memoir was the involved description of word games, which I couldn't gloss over as it was being narrated, but otherwise Anna's condition and her battle to deal with it, did hold my attention; I can't imagine how awful it would be to have to live your whole life in the dark and I hope she eventually manages to find a cure.
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LibraryThing member jess_reads
Disclaimer: I don't read many memoirs, so I'm not used to first person narratives and the occasional use of stilted turns of phrase. Regardless, I am glad I read this one.
Of the few I have read, they are chronologically oriented from childhood to adulthood, from the start of a job to a different
Anna's delight, despair, and determination should incite just as much respect or inspiration as any memoir of someone overcoming or making peace with cancer or chronic illness.
Of the few I have read, they are chronologically oriented from childhood to adulthood, from the start of a job to a different
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and inspired career path, etc. Anna's recollection of her life starts this way, and then spirals into not only a loss of light, but a loss of the sense of time; this wasn't a concept that initially occurred to me. The narrative is broken between sets memories with various ways to keep one from going mad in nearly full darkness. It should feel disjointed and awkward, but it doesn't. It feels real. Anna's delight, despair, and determination should incite just as much respect or inspiration as any memoir of someone overcoming or making peace with cancer or chronic illness.
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LibraryThing member MHanover10
It would be so hard for me to have this disease. I don't know if I could have handled it like Anna Lyndsey does. This is a very well written memoir.
LibraryThing member amandanan
Reading this book makes you really take a look at your life and realize how lucky you are. I can't even begin to imagine being shut up in a dark box of a room, rarely being able to go outside, go to restaurants, go shopping, read, watch TV, take vacations, USE A COMPUTER, etc.
Lyndsey also has a
Lyndsey also has a
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wonderful way with words. I can't wait to get my own copy and underline all of my favorite sentences. Show Less
LibraryThing member ShannonRose4
I finished 25 pages on the bus home today and cannot put this book down. If you liked Brain On Fire, this one is for you. Favorite line today: "The body has an unconscious wisdom that the mind denies"
LibraryThing member DrFuriosa
As a memoir about the collapse of time, this was a fascinating piece of nonfiction. The craft is engaging and masterful in its nonlinear approach. As a memoir about chronic illness, it left so many questions, though. I come from a medical family, and I kept feeling as if Ms. Lyndsey did not fully
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explore or exhaust her medical, psychological, and psychiatric options. I wonder if she suffered needlessly. I wonder if there were unaddressed neurological or psychosomatic issues at play. Like I said, this was a head-scratcher for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member JessicaReadsThings
Very beautiful, poetic language. It's an exquisitely drawn portrait of a someone living with a chronic illness. The non-linear, vignette format really struck me emotionally with bursts of rage, joy, despair, hope. I usually find memoirs difficult, but not this one.
Awards
NPR: Books We Love (2015)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
272 p.; 7.63 inches
ISBN
0385539606 / 9780385539609