The Swan In The Orange Skirt

This is a deeply personal, incisive memoir about an OCD, anxiety, sexual assault, body dysmorphia, and childhood trauma survivor. Olivia Walker’s third-person narration tells her story through the eyes of a woman riding the New York City subway. The people she encounters in the train car; a prophetic old woman, a curious child, and a dejected young man compel dreamlike memories and visions from her past to the surface. A propulsive narrative, weaving through sections of prose and poetry, includes flashes of the past, descriptions of surrealist natural ephemera, and immersive scenes of the different relationships in her life that tip the scale of power dynamics. Walker describes the experience of mental illness, considering triggers and origins, with impeccable clarity and elegance, gripping the reader in her reality like a trance. Her candor paves the way for others to maybe, just maybe, feel less alone.