Your Own Kind of Girl

 Your Own Kind of Girl

Reviewed By  Grasshopper2       November 29, 2019

 

Author  Clare Bowditch

Distributor:      Allen and Unwin
ISBN:                 9781760528959
Publisher:         Allen and Unwin
Release Date:   October 2019  

Website:    https://www.allenandunwin.com 

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If you sit and listen to a song by Clare Bowditch, you will instantly sense the warmth and passion behind this mellow voice. To read her story, told with candour and courage, you begin to understand how the depth of her emotions has been tapped, challenged and resolved.

Most women would associate with many of the trials that beset Clare, however, she certainly faced more than her fair share of troubles. To grow and find success from such a disastrous early life is a tribute to her intelligence and spirit. To want to share this so that others may benefit is a tribute to her heart.

This is an easy story to read in that it is written with humour and honesty. There is no mistaking the love and care of Clare’s family in her early years. She has a remarkable memory for details in her younger days.

However, it is partly these memories which burdened her and contributed to her breakdown in later times. Interestingly Clare says because she was too young to process what was happening in her life linguistically, it was difficult to speak about her feelings at a later time. Her language then was not developed enough to explain what was happening.

So many issues are addressed in this story and each one is worthy of attention. Society rewards women who can control their weight and major aspects of their lives. Although Clare was told by her mother that she was “A peach and an Amazon,” it was not enough to overcome the taunts and bullying that she endured during her school years.

Later she went on a strict diet and lost a great deal of weight. She was perplexed by people’s attitude toward her as a slim woman: she felt she was the same person yet viewed so differently.

The voice in her head, which was the negative deriding voice that most of us have experienced, was harder to control. By giving it a name and getting to the stage that she could tell it to F ..Off was one of the strategies that Clare used.

This came after many sessions with a councillor, many years of intense reading and discovering just how one can conquer anxiety. The book concludes with suggested areas to seek help if you need. This is such a happy ending story, from such a disastrous beginning.

 

 

Biographies, Non Fiction