“A beautiful, heartbreaking book grappling with what it means to live in a female body; what it takes to love and to wrench oneself out of the constraints of love and into a terrifying and dazzling freedom. A gem of a book that is more important now than ever.” —Nayomi Munaweera, award winning author of Island of a Thousand Mirrors and What Lies Between Us.
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“It’s not enough for us as individuals to 'break free of the story' when 'the whole world lives inside the story;' the story itself must change. No one book can do that sort of undoing work, of course — but this one comes close.” — Emory Russo in Sweetlit.
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"Memoir often suffers from a sense of distance and remove as the writer reflects on the past, but Myer’s ability to embody her history infuses the text with an electric corporeality." — Anisse Gross in the San Francisco Chronicle.
"Reading Wiving felt like doing a dot-to-dot. [....] The joy of this book was in connecting those dots and seeing the surprising route the narrative took through the pages." — Lisa Van Orman Hadley in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
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“An absorbing, emotionally raw confessional memoir.” — Kirkus Reviews
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"Wiving is a wonder, a hypnotic account of the dangers of desire – specifically female desire – when it dares to run counter to all the barriers that were created to keep such passions in their place. Myer’s self-examination and honesty go way past brave and into a dizzying kind of free-fall confession. When I finished this, I felt heart-broken to know what finally 'shook her free.' Highly recommended." —Glen David Gold, author of Carter Beats the Devil and I Will Be Complete
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“With a sweet Utah smile and a Molotov cocktail, Caitlin Myer guides us through her evolution from sunny Mormon girl-child toward an ultimate kind of freedom as terrifying as it is dazzling. By turns sexy, brutal, and transcendent, Wiving bares the subtle ways in which girls are groomed to accommodate men at each stage of life. Throughout, the prose is silky, elegant, and innovative. Caitlin Myer scorches the earth in Wiving , and she does it with a blown kiss.”
— Alia Volz, author of Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco
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"Haunting . . . disturbing . . . Myer writes beautifully and with a sense of humor, even about traumatizing events. . . . Be prepared to reflect on feminism, family, fertility, solitude, and mental health with this record of one woman's dramatic life." — Booklist
Among America's lingering mysteries is one called "Utah". In trying to leave its religious and cultural strictures, the author is haunted by memories of a loving, if claustrophobic family, a frowning community, and her own rebellious spirit. Relationships, desperate travel exacerbated by an adventurous spirit, bring her to a hard earned truce in an account of moving and courageous candor. —Thomas McGuane, author of Driving on the Rim and Gallatin Canyon.
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In Wiving, a memoir of her journey away from Mormonism, Caitlin Myer brings a compelling new voice: lyrical, heart-wrenching, and sexy. Myer’s identification with the Biblical figures Judith and Yael and her wild, unconventional choices kept me enthralled. —Ayelet Waldman, New York Times bestselling author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits and Bad Mother.
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