What We’re Reading: Playwright Sarah Ruhl’s facial paralysis didn’t follow the usual story, which is why ‘Smile’ is so good

A decade ago the playwright Sarah Ruhl gave birth to twins and lost her smile, all at once. She was still in the maternity ward when her expression stuck, then wouldn’t unstick. “My smile walked off my face,” that’s how she puts it in her new memoir, “Smile: The Story of a Face” (Simon & Schuster, $27), easily one of the best things I’ve read this year. She developed Bell’s palsy, which paralyzes, restricting facial movement.

Ruhl, a Wilmette, Illinois native, and among the most acclaimed theater people of the past few decades, fell into the narrow 10% of those who get Bell’s palsy and don’t recover.

Which only sounds like the inevitable wind-up to an .