The Tell
Book of the Week: The Tell by Amy Griffin
Reviewed by the one and only Isabella
“I read ‘The Tell’ in one sitting. It is hard not to.
This is the story of Amy Griffin, a successful business woman, and happily married mother of four. Born and raised in West Texas, Griffin spends her childhood and youth pursuing all that is expected of a young girl. She is a good athlete, a good student, a good friend, a good daughter. Doing everything right all of the time in a culture that praises young girls for fitting in, for doing as they are told, for understanding that they will never be as strong or as powerful as the boys whose admiration they should seek - and that that makes sense.
This cultural framework is never really questioned, or if it is, the answers come so quickly and with such conviction, that it is easier to accept than to keep questioning. Amy Griffin succeeds, even shines, in the eyes of her loving parents and her community, goes off to a dream college and a dream life in New York City. There are difficult and defining experiences along the way, poor decisions that seem fine in the moment, disastrous in hindsight.
All seems fine (on the surface) except for the fact that she keeps experiencing injuries due to excessive exercising that started back in middle school. She has several surgeries, including on her back, yet she can’t stop, not even when told that her body is breaking down, that it is trying to tell her something she doesn’t want to hear.
No spoilers (there are some huge ones), but suffice to say that the revelation of suppressed memories and a triggering MDMA experience changes EVERYTHING. As is so often true of real life, this turns out to be only the beginning of a very long, arduous healing process. It is truly amazing what the mind can choose to ‘forget’, and what the body will always reveal.
The Tell is the story of one woman’s survival of experiences unique but sadly not limited to her, and the power of truth-telling as a way of getting through trauma. The book is also the wider story of societal expectations of girls and women, and how so many are taught to seek external validation that so often leads to a tragic loss of sense of self.”