Activist Jen Soriano brings to light the lingering impacts of
transgenerational trauma and uses science, history, and family
stories to flow toward transformation in this powerful collection
that brings together the lyric storytelling, cultural exploration,
and thoughtful analysis of The
Argonauts, The Woman Warrior, What My Bones Know, and Minor
Feelings.
The
power of quiet can haunt us over generations, crystallizing in pain
that Jen Soriano views as a form of embodied history. In this searing
memoir in essays, Soriano, the daughter of a neurosurgeon, journeys
to understand the origins of her chronic pain and mental health
struggles. By the end, she finds both the source and the delta of
what bodies impacted by trauma might need to thrive. In fourteen
essays connected by theme and experience, Soriano traverses centuries
and continents, weaving together memory and history, sociology and
personal stories, neuroscience and public health, into a vivid
tapestry of what it takes to transform trauma not just body by body,
but through the body politic and ecosystems at large.
Beginning
with a shocking timeline juxtaposing Soriano’s medical history with
the history of hysteria and witch hunts, Nervous
navigates the human body—centering neurodiverse, disabled, and
genderqueer bodies of color—within larger systems that have harmed
and silenced Filipinos for generations. Soriano’s wide-ranging
essays contemplate the Spanish-American War that ushered in United
States colonization in the Philippines; the healing power of an
inherited legacy of music; a chosen family of activists from the Bay
Area to the Philippines; and how the fluidity of our nervous
systems can teach us how to shape a trauma-wise future.
With
Nervous,
Soriano boldly invites us along on a watershed journey toward
healing, understanding, and communion.