History Is Embarrassing [Paperback]

A collection of essays full of startling directness, fearlessness, and surprise.
 
Filled with profound reflections and snapshots from the past, Karen Chase’sHistory is Embarrassingweaves together threads from one single life—a girl suffering from polio, a poet, a Jewish woman, a writer, and a painter. Like Chase, the characters who populate these essays are outsiders—undercover cops, a gay couple in 1500s India, bear poachers, psychiatric patients, and even a president—each a meaningful part of history. Divided into three parts—histories, pleasures, and horrors—History is Embarrassingis an assortment of thought-provoking essays that are sure to resonate with many readers.
 Karen Chaseis the author of two collections of poems,Kazimierz SquareandBEARas well asJamali-Kamali, a book-length homoerotic poem, and the memoirsLand of Stone,Polio Boulevard, andFDR On His Houseboat: The Larooco Log, 1924-1926.She and her husband live in Western Massachusetts. Visit her online at www.karenchase.com.