Lacy M. Johnson is the author of "Trespasses: A Memoir" and is coartistic director of the multimedia project [the invisible city]. Her memoir "The Other Side" is forthcoming from Tin House Books in July 2014. She lives in Houston with her husband and children.
*"The Other Side" chosen as a finalist for the National Book
Critics Circle Award
*"The Other Side" chosen as a finalist for an Edgar Award
*"Kirkus" names "The Other Side" one of the best books of 2014
*Chosen as a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick
*"Kirkus" calls "The Other Side" a modern classic"
*The "Houston Chronicle" names "The Other Side" one of the 20 best
books of 2014
"Ferociously beautiful and courageous, Johnson s intimate story
sheds light on the perpetuation of violence against women."
Starred "Kirkus"
"Johnson s matter-of-fact retelling of the horrors that befell her
is by turns poetic and journalistic but harrowing all the way
through."
Starred "Library Journal"
"This riveting narrative of a young woman's kidnapping and rape at
the hands of a former boyfriend moves fluently between dissociation
and healing."
"Publisher's Weekly"
"After she ends their abusive relationship, Johnson's ex kidnaps,
rapes, and imprisons her. The frankness and eloquence of Johnson's
writing puts this true-crime memoir in a league of its own."
"Marie Claire"
""The Other Side" [is] written with both fury and restraint. The
reader feels pulled onto a fast train, in a compartment with a
narrator telling an intimate and terrifying tale."
"Wall Street Journal"
Her powerful new memoir, "The Other Side," is about more than the
crime. It s about how complicated abusive relationships actually
are. It s about how we tell and re-tell the stories that shape our
lives.
"The Houston Chronicle"
""The Other Side" is neither flowery nor stale, never shy or
gratuitous. Instead, its haunting beauty grips the reader from the
opening line. Also of note, this is not a book whose readership can
be defined by gender or role or experience. A wide audience will
relate to Johnson's talk of tattoos and pharmaceuticals, overlooked
aspects of motherhood (moms are also humans with backstories), and
creative spirits in a harsh world. "The Other Side" is
unforgettable."
"The Austin Chronicle"
"The shock of violence, the uncertainty of memory, and the jagged
path of healing are the skillfully braided strands of "The Other
Side," Lacy M. Johnson's poetic, harrowing new memoir about an
abusive and very nearly deadly relationship."
"Oregonian"
"The tone of this memoir might have been completely different if
the perpetrator would have been caught . . . The terror of his
return, of further injury to body and psyche, follows Johnson
wherever she turns. Her direct and honest prose not only evokes
empathy, but an incendiary anger knowing that this existence is not
just a reality for Johnson, but for countless other women as
well."
"Houston Press"
"The tension between fact and perception forms the book s
intellectual backbone, and though "The Other Side" begins as a
true-crime story, it flowers into an investigation of memory.
Despite the subject matter, Johnson never wallows in bleakness. Her
writing style is engaging and redemptive, a trick accomplished
partly by virtue of Johnson s voiceclear and direct, but with a
breezy archness that belies her story s dark core. Upon seeing her
possessions in a Ziploc bag marked EVIDENCE, Johnson writes: Nice
to meet you, Evidence. Elsewhere she exhibits both the touch of a
poet (blood in her mouth becomes the taste of a penny stolen from
the kitchen jar ) and a novelist s eye for character-fleshing
detail (her mother addresses crises with Cool Ranch Doritos)."
"Texas Observer"
""The Other Side" is powerful in its effort to do the
impossible."
"San Antonio Current"
"On a meta-level, "The Other Side" is not only about the desire to
understand what is ultimately incomprehensible, but also about the
messy, complicated work of translating personal experience for
public audiences."
"The San Francisco Chronicle"
"Written. . . in short chunks of powerful prose, not always
chronological (though perfectly clear to follow), circling closer
and closer to that day, finally zooming in on what exactly happened
in that basement.
"Star Tribune"
"["The Other Side" is] a powerful memoir."
"Cleveland Plain Dealer"
"This captivating memoir is as troubling as it is compelling. In
"The Other Side," Johnson relates the wrenching story of her
victimization by an older man with whom she willingly became
involved."
Real Change News
"Johnson s memoir is an extraordinary document, and she herself
holds an important place in a movement to stop violence against
women."
"The Rumpus"
"The descriptions are vivid and the victim is, of course, real. But
throughout "The Other Side" Johnson s choices are literary rather
than cathartic and by the end of the book, we can only conclude
that the two are one and the same. Johnson survives this
experience, and the result of her years of reflection and gained
insight is a well-crafted memoir that will make her a notable
figure in her chosen genre."
"Newcity Lit"
"Gritty and gripping . . . Johnson s haunting and powerful memoir
is told with such intensely lyrical prose, it demands that you push
any light, fluffy summer books aside and commit fully to this
skillfully woven, disorienting narrative. Reading "The Other Side"
is thrilling.
CultureMap Austin
"Unsparing in both its brutality and its beauty. It knocked me out
and lifted me up."
Carrie Brownstein, Sleater-Kinney and "Portlandia"
"In this brilliant memoir, Lacy Johnson offers us a guide to the
impossiblehow to reconstruct a past when the past itself is
shattered, each memory broken into pieces, left rattling around
inside us. Sometimes flashes of poetry are all that we can find in
the wreckage, sometimes these flashes are all that can possibly
save us, brought together for brief, burning instances, and then
let go. "The Other Side" bristles with life and energy and to read
it is to be transformed.
Nick Flynn, author of "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City"
"Wow. Just...Wow. "The Other Side" is the sonic boom of a powerful
story meeting an even more powerful storyteller. It's hard to say
anything about a book that leaves you this breathless. Lacy Johnson
is my new literary hero."
Mat Johnson, author of "PYM"
"Lacy M. Johnson s powerfully moving and brilliantly structured
memoir, "The Other Side," asks, How is it possible to reclaim the
body after devastating violence? Her intense desire and demand for
a life lived in the body is triumphant. Johnson s strength to free
not only her physical self, but also to move through years of
incapacitating fear by writing this book, is breathtaking 'I lift
the chain from my neck, over my head, let it rattle to the
floor'."
Kelle Groom, author of "I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a
Girl"
"In this relentlessly honest memoir, she searches through her
shredded memories of their relationship and his descent into the
violence that nearly killed her. More importantly, she writes
movingly about her attempts, first faltering, to overcome her
depression, anxiety, and despair, and her gathering strength to
confront the future."
Barnes & Noble
"I still can't stop talking about this book and thinking about it
and feeling deeply emotional about it. Some books just kick you
hard in the gut and you see the world differently."
Book People of Moscow
"When she was twenty-one, Lacy M. Johnson was kidnapped, raped, and
nearly murdered by an ex-boyfriend. Johnson s new memoir "The Other
Side" is her reconstruction of that time in her lifeof the events
leading up to and away from that harrowing act of domestic
violence. Yet "The Other Side" does something remarkable: Despite
its disturbing content, it never wallows in despair. Instead, it
becomes a moving, life-affirming work about learning to take
control of one s own story."
Brazos Bookstore
"To put this memoir to paper was brave. To have that bound, sold
and read by the general public is downright heroic. "The Other
Side" will break your heart and shatter your spirit. It will also
be the most hopeful and inspirational book you read this year.
Maybe ever. Ms. Johnson reconstructs the broken bits of her mind
and body before our eyes, at once questioning memory and choices
made but ultimately owning her situation. Poetic and gut wrenching,
devastating and beautiful, "The Other Side" is one of those rare
books that will change you."
Javier Ramirez, City Lit Books
"
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