Books: Easy Beauty

Writing a memoir inherently takes some intestinal fortitude. You are sharing some very private thoughts and moments for the world to examine, flagging them as noteworthy, and (unlike a traditional autobiography) aren't close enough to the end of your life to not care about the reaction. Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper Jones must have been even harder to write, since Jones talks frankly about her rare disability - sacral agenesis.

Jones is a philosophy professor and writer, and her book recounts vignettes from her childhood and adult life: growing up with her inspiring but distant father, garnering unwanted sympathy at a Beyoncé concert, and coming to grips with being a mother and wife. My favorite episode is Jones's description of meeting Peter Dinklage at a party, a tragicomic scene for the ages.

Jones is a good, articulate writer, and she conveys her innermost emotions well. The problem with Easy Beauty is that Jones has (so far) not led that interesting of a life. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but her disability is not as debilitating as others in the grand scheme of things, and her travelogues in Italy and Cambodia don't amount to anything of note. I'm sure that in a few decades, she'll have more to say, so you might want to wait for that book.