At a glance
Pages124
First published2010
SettingContemporary Montreal
Reading time~2h 30m
AudienceAdult
ISBN1426927649
About the Author
Romy Shiller1 book reviewed
Who Knew?
A Continuation of You Never Know
by Romy Shiller
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for: Readers of Shiller's first memoir, You Never Know, who want to know what came next — and readers in or around disability studies, body image, and the sociology of the body who value a memoirist with formal scholarly training in exactly those fields.
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Who Knew? is Romy Shiller's 124-page follow-up to You Never Know, in which the pop culture critic and Drama PhD applies her scholarly work on the body to life after a brain tumour operation, a five-month coma, and lasting disability. LuvemBooks finds it a short, intellectually driven continuation best suited to readers of the first memoir and those interested in disability studies and the sociology of the body — with the key caveat that it cannot stand alone and its available commentary comes from a small, sympathetic reader base rather than independent criticism.
- Is it worth reading?
- For the right reader, yes — LuvemBooks finds its clearest asset is its refusal to separate the mind from the circumstance: a scholar of gender performance and the body turning that analysis on herself gives the memoir an intellectual through-line most illness narratives lack. The caveats are real, though: at 124 pages it is brief, it depends entirely on having read You Never Know first, and the available reader commentary comes from a small, sympathetic base rather than independent critical coverage. Readers of the first memoir, or those working around disability studies and body image, will get the most from it.
- Similar books
- The natural companion is Shiller's own You Never Know: A Memoir, which this volume continues. For other memoirs of medicine and altered bodies, LuvemBooks pairs it with When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgeon's reckoning with his own terminal diagnosis; My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist's account of her own stroke; and No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox, on optimism in the face of ongoing illness. Readers drawn to the resilience and personal-growth dimension might also consider Cheryl Strayed's Wild.
- Who should read this?
- LuvemBooks identifies two ideal audiences: readers of You Never Know who want to know what came next for Shiller, and readers working in or around disability studies, body image, and the sociology of the body who value a memoirist with formal scholarly credentials in exactly those areas. One Amazon.ca reader notes that newcomers to her work would not detect her physical limitations on the page — she appears as critic and scholar first, not "a body-in-circumstance."
- Where should I start with this author?
- Unquestionably You Never Know: A Memoir. Who Knew? announces itself as a continuation in its subtitle, and the review is explicit that readers who haven't read the first volume enter mid-story. The first memoir establishes the medical events — the brain tumour operation and five-month coma — that the second volume examines through Shiller's scholarly framework.
- How is it different from typical illness memoirs?
- Method rather than event. Most illness memoirs follow diagnosis, crisis, and recovery; Who Knew? instead applies Shiller's academic work on the body — gender performance, film, camp, critical thought — to her own lived experience of disability. The concept of drag, the subject of her PhD thesis, surfaces in reader accounts as important to her framework, and the book is structured around ongoing adaptation rather than cure, giving it an argument instead of a diary shape.
- How much weight should reader reviews carry?
- Proceed with caution. The most substantive commentary available comes from a small number of Amazon.ca reviews, and one of the most detailed was written by a reader who describes becoming internet friends with Shiller after her first book. That is engaged, sympathetic readership rather than detached criticism — consistent with the book's stated design, but prospective buyers should calibrate expectations rather than treating it as broad critical consensus.
Summarize this book
Is it worth reading?
Who should read this?
Where should I start with this author?
How is it different from typical illness memoirs?
How much weight should reader reviews carry?
Summarize this book
Who Knew? is Romy Shiller's second memoir, published in hardcover by Trafford Publishing in March 2010, continuing the story begun in You Never Know. After a non-malignant brain tumour operation and a five-month coma left her in a wheelchair with dysarthria, Shiller — a Drama PhD whose concentrations include gender performance, film, and camp — applies her scholarly work on the body to her own new physical reality. The publisher frames the 124-page book around her conviction that challenges can be met and overcome, and readers describe encountering a deeper, more mature writer engaging with memory, being seen as one is, and resilience.
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Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Adult
Reading level
Adult
2 content notes · who it suits
Content to know about
brain tumour surgery and a five-month coma
acquired physical disability and speech impediment (dysarthria)
Skip if you haven't read You Never Know and want a standalone memoir with a conventional diagnosis-to-recovery arc — this is a brief continuation framed around ongoing adaptation, not cure.
Editorial Review
Who Knew? Is Romy Shiller's follow-up to You Never Know: A Memoir, applying her academic work on the body to life after a brain tumour operation, a five-month coma, and lasting disability.…
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