DIZZY: A MEMOIR
WVU PRESS, 2026
“An arresting new memoir….” – Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air
In her early thirties, Rachel Weaver woke up dizzy and unable to function. She spent the next ten years seeing more than thirty medical practitioners before receiving a diagnosis, and then another eight years before finding relief from her condition. Dizzy is amedical mystery and a cautionary tale about our broken healthcare system. It is a story about learning to live with life’s uncertainty, persevering in the pursuit of answers, and striving to find joy in an imperfect yet beautiful world.
“Dizzy is a memoir of the highest quality. It brings beauty and urgency to the overall necessary conversation about the U.S. medical system, while also functioning as a beautifully written literary memoir. This high-stakes story is spiked with moments of uncommon wisdom,poignancy, and deep emotion. I was moved to tears many times.”-Erika Krouse, author of Save Me, Stranger: Stories
Dizzy evokes what life is in wreckage of chronic illness, with suffering compounded by abandonment by specialist medicine that has no means to care for those it cannot treat. Ill people will find a lifeline of companionship in Dizzy; healthcare professionals will face a challenge. Rachel Weaver never softens her story, and that gives it truth as a testimonial to the will to live fully in whatever conditions life throws at you. — Arthur W. Frank, author of At the Will of the Body and The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics
“Stark, unsettling, and propulsive…. Dizzy is an essential book for women, for those living with invisible pain, and for anyone who has had to dismantle countless barriers just to be believed.” — Sally Jane Brown, Arrhythmia Magazine
Dizzy evokes what life is in wreckage of chronic illness, with suffering compounded by abandonment by specialist medicine that has no means to care for those it cannot treat. Ill people will find a lifeline of companionship in Dizzy; healthcare professionals will face a challenge. Rachel Weaver never softens her story, and that gives it truth as a testimonial to the will to live fully in whatever conditions life throws at you. — Arthur W. Frank, author of At the Will of the Body and The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics
“Dizzy is a tale of tenacity, bravery, and daring to hope when all seems lost. I found strength and courage in its pages and I think you will, too.” — Natalie Mead, writer of Oops, My Brain,