Notes to Self by Emilie Pine Summary

Notes to Self is a collection of raw, autobiographical essays exploring trauma, resilience, and womanhood. Emilie Pine confronts topics like infertility, parental alcoholism, sexual assault, and societal taboos around female pain with unflinching honesty. Structured as six deeply personal narratives, the book challenges societal silence around women’s struggles while celebrating survival and self-reclamation.

This book resonates with readers interested in feminist memoirs, trauma narratives, or transformative personal essays. It’s particularly valuable for those grappling with infertility, addiction in families, or sexual violence, offering solidarity through Pine’s vulnerability. Fans of Lena Dunham’s confessional style or Anne Enright’s emotional depth will appreciate its unapologetic voice.

Yes—it’s praised as “devastating, poignant, and wise” (Sunday Independent) and “an unforgettable exploration of what it feels like to be alive” (Lena Dunham). While some find its rawness confronting, critics highlight its power to validate readers’ own unspoken experiences.

Key themes include:

• Silence vs. truth-telling: Rebelling against societal pressure to hide pain
• Female bodily autonomy: Addressing menstruation, infertility, and sexual violence
• Intergenerational trauma: Navigating parental alcoholism and fractured family dynamics
• Self-destruction and recovery: Chronicling eating disorders, self-harm, and healing

Pine frames personal struggles as political acts, dissecting how society polices women’s bodies and emotions. Essays like “Notes on Bleeding and Other Crimes” reframe menstruation as a feminist issue, while her account of sexual assault critiques victim-blaming culture.

Notable acclaim includes:

• “A screaming treatise on making your own rules” – Lena Dunham
• “Harrowing, clear-eyed…priority reading” – Sunday Business Post
• “Agonizing, uncompromising, starkly brilliant” – Financial Times

Some readers criticize its intensity, calling it “self-indulgent” for focusing on non-extreme trauma. Others argue its specificity paradoxically universalizes women’s pain, creating both intimacy and emotional distance.

Unlike chronological memoirs, Pine’s essay format allows fractured, thematically linked storytelling. It shares the vulnerability of Roxane Gay’s Hunger but emphasizes Irish societal contexts, blending personal narrative with cultural critique.

• On survival: “I write this now to reclaim those parts of me that for so long I thoroughly denied”
• On female pain: “We are not supposed to have bodies that bleed or break”
• On truth: “The quicker you name the problem, the quicker you can move through it”

The essays follow a loose chronological arc, starting with her father’s hospitalization for alcoholism and progressing through adolescence, infertility, and academic life. Each piece stands alone but builds thematic resonance about self-discovery.

While not prescriptive, it models radical honesty as a healing tool. Pine’s reflections on therapy, creative writing, and setting boundaries provide implicit guidance for processing trauma.

It helped catalyze Ireland’s #MeToo movement by articulating silenced experiences of assault and institutional misogyny. Its 2018 release coincided with national debates on abortion rights and church abuse scandals, amplifying its impact.

The book doesn’t include explicit warnings, but essays graphically depict self-harm, rape, and medical trauma. Readers sensitive to these topics may find sections emotionally taxing.

The book won the 2018 An Post Irish Book Award for Best Newcomer and was shortlisted for the 2019 Irish Book Award for Nonfiction, cementing Pine’s status in contemporary Irish literature.