Godspeed : a memoir / Casey Legler.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781501135750
- ISBN: 1501135759
- Physical Description: viii, 162 pages ; 22 cm
- Edition: First Atria Books hardcover edition.
- Publisher: New York : Atria Books, 2018.
- Copyright: ©2018
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Genre: | Autobiographies. Nonfiction. Biography. Autobiographies. |
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Homer Public Library | B LEGLER (Text) | 000150269 | Biography | Available | - |
Publishers Weekly Review
Godspeed : A Memoir
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Olympic swimmer Legler's intense memoir delves into her experience of depression and substance abuse. Legler tells of her nomadic childhood and adolescence, which spanned continents and countries, taking readers from her native France to Sweden, where she trained and competed, and then back to France, where she first began drinking as a 14-year-old hoping to escape the torturous rigors of swim practice. Legler writes, "My sigh resigns itself to the workout and, shoulders slumped, I turn around to face my lane and the water and the far-off wall at the other end of it. I try to hope that it'll be one of those practices where my brain lifts out of my body and I can't tell I'm swimming." Legler succinctly captures her descent into alcohol and drug addiction: the incessant monotony of it, the cycles of escape and crash: "I sniff that magic up my nose and don't go down for days and instead feel the weight of the empty ghost truck on idle settle in the middle of my chest." For her senior year of high school, she moved to Miami, and then moved to Tucson, Ariz., for college in 1995, where she fell deeper into the pit of addiction while winning more medals. The raw effect of the prose lingers, as when Legler describes getting her period as "feeling the blood gulp out of me." At age 19, she competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics where she placed 10th in the 4 x 100-meter relay; she eventually went into rehab, quit swimming in her early 20s, and now models. This is a raw story of teenage addiction, and it's beautifully told. Agent: Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
BookList Review
Godspeed : A Memoir
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
When you die, Casey, and they open your brain, that's when they'll see that it's not built like the rest of ours. Now that's a first-line hook. Today Casey Legler is an artist, model (the first woman to be signed as a male model), and social activist who recently married her wife, but as a teenager, she was a world-class swimmer who lived in the U.S. and France, competed for the University of Arizona, and represented France in the 1996 Olympic Games. This is a heart-wrenching, coming-of-age memoir by a talented athlete who is street-smart, lonely, and painfully broken. Chronicling her downward spiral and eventual rock-bottom moment, she describes in detail her period of sexual promiscuity, her experiences both consuming and selling drugs, and her suicide attempt, as well as revealing, in an author's note, that after she had completed this memoir she was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. A poetically written account by a resilient rebel who skillfully captures what it is like to feel the world through her skin.--Barrera, Brenda Copyright 2010 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Godspeed : A Memoir
Kirkus Reviews
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
A modeling industry trailblazer and former Olympic swimmer recounts her troubled girlhood.In her debut, Legler passionately relives her years in Europe and stateside. She was born to expatriate American parents who, despite a disintegrating marriage, struggled to raise her and her siblings. Restless and lonely, the uncommonly tall girl found solace and purpose in swimming. She quickly developed great skill and dexterity, which positioned her for greatness as her strength and determination grew with regular training sessions. The author swam competitively in her early teens as she navigated simmering hormones, smitten boys, and the abusive, predatory physician treating her scoliosis. Legler's lyrically descriptive prose glides across childhood anecdotes of her first swimming attempt as well as awkward sexual interludes as she strained to discover her identity and a place of her own among her classmates. She shows the precarious balancing act that ensued between her rigorous training sessions at the pool and the soft-core rebellion of teenage life and the struggle to fit in: "I have a swim meet the next day but I'll get drunk anyway so that I can crawl on the couch with the rest of them. And I do. And it feels good. And I am beautiful." The author also began to embrace the first sparks of attraction to other girls while exploring her desires with men. Then she shifted her focus to qualifying for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. She intricately describes every nuance of the competitive experience alongside her personal self-discovery and experimentation with sex, alcohol, and procuring drugs for her fellow teammates. Legler decorates each of her adventures with urgency and lively, only occasionally strained poetic expression. Readers familiar with the author know she has grown past the dark days described in this memoir to become a unique fashion model, social justice activist, and successful entrepreneur. This focused attention on her youthful turmoil represents a significant need for blissful catharsis.A coming-of-age drama captured through poetic prose and convincing honesty. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.