Karen Stefano's memoir What a Body Remembers is both uncomfortably candid and instantly accessible to anyone who has ever felt like an outsider.
As a freshman at Berkeley, Karen is happy and hopeful about fitting into college life. But the obstacles of rush week end with an envelope containing a blank piece of paper. No sorority wanted her. She is from meager means and now she has to pay for a place to live. So she switches gears and gets a job with the campus police department. She dutifully learns all the procedures and tools, and realizes she likes the job. The uniform feels like armor and empowers her. When she slips back into regular clothes, though, she worries she's not as tough as her co-workers.
Walking home late one night from work, she's attacked by a knife-wielding man who tries to rape her. She screams and the attacker escapes into the night. Karen isn't hurt physically, but that doesn't mean there aren't any wounds or scarring. It's 1984, and PTSD hasn't become part of mainstream vocabulary yet; Karen is too damaged to know even to ask for the help she needs. For the next three decades, she struggles with panic attacks and a lack of compassion as memories of the traumatic event and the subsequent trial of her attacker keep coming back to haunt her.
Stefano's memoir is raw and wrenching, but her solid, candid writing invites readers into this testament to her experience. --Paul Dinh-McCrillis, freelance reviewer