Unveiling the Fractured Self: Nina B. Lichtenstein’s Body Tells a Story Beyond Skin Deep
Reviewed by Amy Goldmacher
“Oh my god, here it is: it’s coming for me.”
In Body: My Life in Parts (Vine Leaves Press; May 2025), Nina B.Lichtenstein reckons with middle age, menopause, and the uncertainty of health and wellness in this phase of life. On a middle-of-the-night bathroom run, Lichtenstein experiences a sudden and severe pain in her hip:
What was this pain about?… As I limped back to bed in the dark, I thought, why not write about the memories lodged within my various body parts? Before it’s too late, my morbid internal voice chimed in. I wanted to understand how I’ve gotten to this past-the-midpoint in life, and I imagined my body would be the most reliable record-keeper. In that moment, I felt an urgent intimacy and need for complicity with my body to make sense of it all. Use me to account for your story, it whispered. Eyes, breasts, hips, and feet: they will collaborate with you and guide your remembrances, it promised.
