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BATHSHEBA’S BREAST

Name: BATHSHEBA’S BREAST
Author: James S. Olson
ISBN: 0-8018-6936-6

WOMEN, CANCER AND HISTORY

by James S. Olson ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 27, 2002

A lucid account of an ongoing war on a changing battlefield with at least the hope of new weapons.

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How perceptions of breast cancer and its treatment have evolved over the centuries, particularly since the advent of the women’s movement.

In what he calls “self-administered psychotherapy” following the loss of his left arm to an epithelial sarcoma, Olson (History/Sam Houston State Univ.) immersed himself in the study of breast cancer’s history. Not only is there a rich body of literature by prominent victims, but the gender dynamics of the disease—invariably female patients treated by generally male doctors—provide a fascinating view of the ways in which culture, politics, and science interact. Stories of individual women’s battles with cancer, ranging from Persian Queen Atossa in the fifth century b.c. to American scientist Jerri Nielson in 20th-century Antarctica, provide a dramatic introduction. Olson then details how views of the disease have altered since the time of Hippocrates, who believed its cause was an excess of black bile in the body, and how treatments have evolved partly as a result of scientific advances and partly through cultural changes. While pre-anesthesia mastectomies seem downright barbaric, the widespread performance in the 1950s of mutilating and debilitating super-radical mastectomies followed by further surgery to remove the ovaries, the pituitary, and the adrenal glands, is no less repulsive. Today, Olson reports, such treatments have been supplanted by far less drastic surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. He recounts how the women’s movement, the pop-culture obsession with breasts, the willingness of some physicians to test alternatives to radical mastectomy, and the development of mammography permitting earlier diagnosis have changed the options available to women with breast cancer. He describes how activists have moved from providing emotional support to breast cancer patients to challenging the medical establishment and lobbying the government for research money and legislative changes affecting insurance coverage. Its stigma disappearing, breast cancer has now moved onto book and magazine covers and into sitcoms.

A lucid account of an ongoing war on a changing battlefield with at least the hope of new weapons.

Pub Date: July 27, 2002

ISBN: 0-8018-6936-6

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2002

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
JOHN WAYNE: AMERICAN
by Randy Roberts & James S. Olson

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.