Bound: A Daughter, a Domme, and an End-of-Life Story - Softcover

Wood, Elizabeth Anne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1631526308 ISBN 13: 9781631526305

Publisher: She Writes Press, 2019

Synopsis

What happens when a forty-something, community college sociology professor learns that her mother―a charming, passive-aggressive, and needy woman who hasn’t had a lover in decades―has started seeing men who want to be bound, whipped, and sexually dominated? What happens when that same mother, shortly after diving into her newly discovered sexuality, develops a cancer that forces her to accept radical changes to her body, and then another that forces her, and everyone around her, to confront her mortality?
In Bound, Elizabeth Anne Wood addresses these questions as she chronicles the last eight months of her mother’s life―a period she comes to see, over the course of months, as a maternity leave in reverse: she is carrying her mother as she dies. Throughout their journey, Wood uses her notebook as a shield to keep unruly emotions at bay, often taking comfort in her role as advocate and forgetting to “be the daughter,” as one doctor reminds her to do. Meanwhile, her mother’s penchant for denial and her childlike tendency toward magical thinking lead to moments of humor even as Wood battles the red tape of hospital bureaucracies, the frustration of planning in the midst of an unpredictable illness, and the unintentional inhumanity of a health care system that too often fails to see the person behind the medical chart.

About this title

About the Author:

Elizabeth Anne Wood is a SUNY Chancellors Award–winning professor of sociology at Nassau Community College in Garden City, NY. She is also Senior Strategist for Woodhull Freedom Foundation, the nation’s only human rights organization working full time to protect sexual freedom as a fundamental human right. She earned her PhD at Brandeis University in 1999 and has written critically about sexuality and society ever since. Born on an Army base in Kentucky, Wood grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and now divides her time between Queens, New York and Jamaica Plain, Boston. She is a devoted fan of Amtrak and an avowed cat person.

Review:

“Sex, death, and family are some of the hardest topics for any writer to take on. Elizabeth Wood gracefully and fearlessly explores all three in this moving memoir.”

―Lux Alptraum, author of Faking it: Lies Women Tell About Sex―And the Truths They Reveal
“In this fascinating exploration of a complex mother-daughter relationship, Elizabeth Wood comes to terms with her mother's flaws and eccentricities in order to make peace with her impending death. Wood also shines a necessary spotlight on the myriad bureaucracies within our health care system that make navigating illness challenging and often dehumanizing. A smartly written, thought-provoking read.”

―Heather Frimmer, MD, author of Bedside Manners
“Elizabeth Wood puts a human face on our health care crisis. She offers a loving testimony to her mother―who lived life exuberantly as an elder dominatrix―and an indictment of the way our health care system treats those least able to advocate for themselves.”

―Joan Price, author of Naked at Our Age: Talking Out Loud about Senior Sex and the forthcoming Sex After Grief: Navigating Your Sexuality After Loss of Your Beloved
“Bound is a deeply honest, unflinching portrait of a daughter’s relationship with her mother at the end of life. In this affecting memoir, the intimacies of an aging woman’s lifestyle of kink and bondage become fascinating metaphors for hospital life, medical care, and physical dependence during illness and dying. Bound is both a brilliant meditation on helplessness and power and a stirring testament to the strength of bonds between people who care for each other.”

―Victoria Pitts-Taylor, PhD, author of The Brain's Body: Neuroscience and Corporeal Politics
“Told with courage, honesty, humor, warmth, and insight, Bound offers readers a front-row seat to the negotiations between a daughter, her unconventional mother, and other family as they face the medical-emotional whiplash of terminal illness. Wood offers wisdom and perspective that is sure to help others as they straddle the painful space between what they want and the inevitability of loss. This book is filled with love and promises to be a wonderful companion for anyone faced with caregiving for a loved one.”

―Virginia A. Simpson, PhD, FT, award-winning author of The Space Between: A Memoir of Mother-Daughter Love at the End of Life
“Bound explores the complexities of caregiving in the context of a unique mother-daughter relationship. This personal story triggers universal emotions and offers insights that will help you understand your own caregiving journey.”

―Iris Waichler, MSW, LCSW, author of Role Reversal: How to Take Care of Yourself and Your Aging Parents
“. . . a frank and refreshing exploration of the continued importance of sex and pleasure, even when facing a life-threatening illness . . . a rewarding read.”

―Dallas Voice

About this edition

• Publisher: She Writes Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1631526308
• ISBN 13: 9781631526305
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296