The writer Genevieve Chornenki discusses her memoir Don’t Lose Sight: Vanity, Incompetence, and My Ill-Fated Left Eye (Iguana Books, 2021), with Joseph Planta.

Don’t Lose Sight: Vanity, Incompetence, and My Ill-Fated Left Eye by Genevieve Chornenki (Iguana Books, 2021). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Don’t Lose Sight

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

We often take our eyesight for granted, and we make concessions that test our eyesight out of convenience and/or vanity. A new memoir puts into focus our sight, as its author describes her experiences with her left eye. The book is called Don’t Lose Sight: Vanity, Incompetence, and My Ill-Fated Left Eye. A user of contact lenses, Genevieve Chornenki, feels something’s off with her left eye. She gets it checked, but is told it’s not what she thinks it is. We all get condescended to by medical professionals, but Genevieve is persistent and soon is told, by another medical professional that it’s serious and she’s to undergo a corrective procedure. She’s just had a child too. She describes in evocative detail the issues she was experiencing with her sight, as well as the process she initiated to address the medical mistake. It’s an often frustrating ordeal through the medical and legal bureaucracy. It’s instructive though, and is one part of the memoir that makes it compelling. It’s also beautiful when its author reflects on the power of our eyesight, and like the author, we can appreciate it just a little bit more. Genevieve Chornenki is a dispute resolution consultant and emerging writer, who joined me from Toronto, where she lives. She holds a Master of Laws in Alternative Dispute Resolution from Osgoode Hall Law School, and certificates of creative writing and publishing from the University of Toronto, and Ryerson, respectively. Visit www.genevievechornenki.com for more. This new book is published by Iguana Books. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Genevieve Chornenki; Ms. Chornenki, good morning.

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