Memory monologues of Eve Ensler

Reference: In the Body of the World: A Memoir by Eve Ensler

This is a fascinating book in which the author, Eve Ensler, narrates her life experience as an activist for women's rights. She speaks of atrocities committed against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the war-torn parts of former Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan. Her experiences in working with less fortunate women and her inner thoughts have evolved into a beautiful and creative work of scholarship. She challenges us; who will join those who lived through the atrocities of war; who have lived in the deserts, forests, in the projects, and the cramped cities, and these brave women have carried the sacs of physical and emotional pains, some much scarred, and yet their work and sacrifices are not in vain as the world continues to roll into the future. She writes that the world burns in her veins just like chemotherapy at the Mayo clinic when she was being treated for her uterine cancer. She calls for action; to turn pain into power, victimhood to fire, self-hatred into action, self-obsession into service. Be transparent as wind and be relentless in being a part of the larger humanity that keeps evolving.

When Ms Ensler was young, she drank herself to the extreme, did drugs at 16, snuck out with much older men, lived naked in communes, stole things, and wrote about suicide. She worked as a caretaker of in a Chelsea House of Schizophrenics, and as a group leader of a homeless shelter. Took acid for three days and made love to a famous Jazz musician. In college, she lived half-naked, lived as exhibitionist, experimented with both gay and straight sex without landing firmly in either court. She gave a commencement speech at the college and spoke against racism and sexism and sat down and drank from a bottle of Jack Daniels in a brown paper bag. Eve Ensler was an outrageous woman much of her life. Her theatrical work, "Vagina Monologues," was bold but also ruffled many conservatives. This outstanding memoir begins with her body and the abuses she faced. She has focused much of her latter life on reclaiming her body and herself and leading others to do the same.

When she was on her sickbed at the Mayo Clinic with terminal stage IV uterine cancer, Ensler recalls her life, the turmoil, and the men and women she befriended over the years, and the end of the of humanity she saw through the eyes of sufferings in Congo. It is during this tumultuous time of her life she looks back to understand that her cancer and the mankind's ruthless violence are in fact very similar. She successfully fights off the cancer surrounded by her friends, family and well-wishers. She goes back to Congo, a country she cared so much, to meet her old friends and acquaintances. She persuades the doctors at the Mayo clinic to offer their services to the needy people of Congo. This book is full of her thoughts and experiences; it is very touching.