Arts Publications
Topic: RSS FeedGifts from the Broken Jar
Small Press Bookwatch, Jan, 2005
Gifts From The Broken Jar
P. J. Long
EquiLibrium Press
10736 Jefferson Blvd. #680, Culver City, CA 90230
0966739396 $19.95 www.equipress.com
Gifts From The Broken Jar: Rediscovering Hope, Beauty, And Joy by P.J. Long is a memoir that encompasses how one's life can change on every level in a single instant. Psychotherapist and author P. J. Long experienced such a cataclysm when an accident caused permanent brain damage. For the first few months afterward, she was unable to reason clearly, hold a conversation, or take care of herself; she was a stranger to herself. The passage of time brought incomplete healing, as she was unable to perform the simplest tasks without complete silence, and still experienced severe difficulty attempting to function or communicate. But in picking up a pen and putting feelings on paper, she was gradually able to learn how to reach out. Her testimony and reflections upon life, as she works to repair the breakage in her own mind, come through with unparalleled power and honesty. "I realized that what is initially most troubling for brain injury patients is their diminished ability to function", she writes candidly. "'Not doing the things I used to do' translates pretty quickly into 'not being the person I used to be.'" Gifts from the Broken Jar is a testimony of strength, of finding joy in life and adapting to change. Highly recommended.
Most Recent Arts Articles
- Slumdog comprador: coming to terms with the Slumdog phenomenon
- Still mining his Winnipeg: an interview with Guy Maddin
- It doesn't seem 'Canadian': quality television' and Canadian-American co-productions
- Second city or second country? The question of Canadian identity in SCTV'S transcultural text
- Hop on pop: jiangshi films in a transnational context
Most Recent Arts Publications
Most Popular Arts Articles
- What makes a successful business person? Business people who are tops in their field have a lot in common, and art professionals can learn a lot from their successes and strategies
- It's urban, it's real, but is this literature? Controversy rages over a new genre whose sales are headed off the charts
- The Horn identity: by day, Justin, Murdock is one of L.A.'s flashiest bachelors. By bight, he's Eliphas Horn, Goth antihero. (Eye).
- The Arnolfini double portrait: a simple solution
- Toni Cade Bambara's use of African American Vernacular English in "The Lesson"


