A Guide to Open Water Lifesaving: Lessons on Love, Care, and Survival: A Memoir
Biographical Note: Virginia Eubanks is a professor and an investigative journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Harper's Magazine, The Guardian, Nature, and Scientific American. She is the author of the...
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Biographical Note: "Eubanks is both a thorough reporter and a beautiful prose stylist . . . This eloquent, well-buttressed plea for improved support for trauma survivors is itself a significant contribution." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) "[Eubanks] writes eloquently about how untethered and out of control she felt . . . Frank and deeply researched." --Cristian Ianzito, AARP "For anyone who's been told that trauma is a chance for growth, or that wounds are where the light comes in, Virginia Eubanks has written a scorching reply to the 'exhausting bullshit' foisted on caregivers. A furiously honest, beautiful, and riveting story about how she managed to stay sane, solvent, and loving. I read it into the night." --Larissa MacFarquhar, author of Strangers Drowning " A Guide to Open Water Lifesaving is a remarkable story of how to escape the trauma and sorrow of the present by cultivating experiences that change who you can become in the future." --Lisa Feldman Barrett, author of How Emotions are Made "In its prose, research, and insights, A Guide to Open Water Lifesaving surprises, excoriates, and delights, even while it lays bare the enormous challenges of caregiving and self-care. As I followed Virginia Eubanks on this journey of healing, I found new ideas on how to live; reading this brilliant book may just give you the tools and hope you need for your own survival." --Emily Maloney, author of Cost of Living "In her breathtaking and important new book, Virginia Eubanks shows, with focused rage, that caregivers are paying the price for multiple systems failures. Caregivers deserve better choices, she argues, than martyrdom or abandoning those they love to save themselves." --Brigid Schulte, author of Over Work "Some writers you admire, some you love. With Virginia Eubanks it's both--for her tenacity, her noble curiosity, her big, honest heart, and her capacity for laughter as she pursues help for another's calamity, which becomes her own. Her way out is open water, the coldest element in which to test one's capacity to save oneself. In the bargain, she rescues us." --Roger Rosenblatt, author of Kayak Morning "In this book, Virginia Eubanks breaks new ground, rigorously reporting on her own experience with a kind of PTSD shared by millions of Americans. I'm sure many other readers will be made more brave by it as well." --Alissa Quart, author of Bootstrapped "Virginia Eubanks jumps into the deep end with kin caregivers and our attempts to show our loved ones that we're present and capable. But don't worry--this book doubles as a flotation device, held buoyant through her writing, authority, and humility. A Guide to Open Water Lifesaving is an enveloping, spell-casting memoir for anyone curious about how to navigate the strange wilderness of caregiving and not only survive, but thrive." --Nicholas Triolo, author of The Way Around Publisher Marketing: Someone you love, maybe the person you love most in the world, is drowning. Should you jump in the water? Will you be able to bring both of you back to shore? One night, Virginia Eubanks received the kind of news we all fear. Her beloved partner had been brutally beaten, just steps from their home. She jumped in the water. Eubanks dove into the responsibilities of caregiving. In the weeks, months, and years that followed, she and her partner, J., struggled to stay afloat as they faced wave upon wave of setbacks: police disinterest, suspended health insurance, inadequate medical care, lost income, lost friends, endless paperwork, and, for J., a serious case of post-traumatic stress disorder. Then, a second case. Eubanks herself developed what is known as collateral PTSD, a condition common among caregivers but rarely discussed. She scanned the horizon for help. A reporter and an activist, Eubanks turned to reliable sources for guidance: scientists, therapists, trauma theorists, social movements. But it wasn't until she happened on an old lifesaving manual that she found advice that actually helped. Inspired by its lessons, she signed up for instruction in wilderness first aid, kayak self-rescue, Winter Survival 101, map and compass navigation, bushwhacking, and lifeguarding. She went out in search of other people's stories and interviewed experts--everyone from neuroscientists to forest rangers. She gathered skills and knowledge that made her feel strong, competent, better prepared for the challenges ahead. Disarmingly funny and quietly wise, A Guide to Open Water Lifesaving is the story--heart-wrenching and all too relatable--of how one woman tried to rescue her beloved and learned that she would also have to rescue herself. Built from both loss and connection, it is a moving, hopeful love story about two people caught in their own kind of wilderness, trying not just to survive but to truly care for each other. It asks that we reconsider the ways in which we tend to our loved ones and ourselves, and remember the communities of care that sustain us. It reminds us: no one survives the wilderness alone.Review Citations:
Contributor Bio:Eubanks, Virginia |