Emily Wells' memoir explores chronic illness and the limits of language in representing pain

In her memoir, 'A Matter of Appearance: A Memoir of Chronic Illness,' Emily Wells delves into the challenge of expressing chronic illness, comparing it to the task of putting a constant scream into words. She reflects on how authors such as Alice Hattrick, Gillian Rose, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick provide intellectual insights into illness. Drawing parallels between her experiences in ballet and modeling, Wells contrasts public and private suffering, referencing Anne Boyer's 2019 memoir, 'The Undying.' Diagnosed with a rare autoimmune condition only in adulthood, she reveals that her childhood symptoms were often misinterpreted as emotional problems. She critiques the medical system's approach to quantifying pain and discusses trauma's impact on women's health narratives, citing Parul Sehgal's 2021 analysis. Additionally, Wells examines 19th-century patient photographs, emphasizing the objectification of pain and the difficulty of articulating it.