ERIC

by Doris Lund ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 4, 1974

One more time -- one more unbearable time (Alsop spared his readers; Josh [KR, p. 847] just died more quickly even if he had the same determination to live) in and out of hospitals and remissions, with pills, needles, tubes, tests, transfusions, during a four year dark victory over leukemia. Eric, seventeen, when first told (by his mother -- often shunted aside) reacted ""I'm glad it's not Mark"" (his brother) and ""I can handle it. . .beat it."" For a time with one drug and then the experimental asparaginase (courtesy of New York's Memorial -- $30,000 worth in the icebox at home when Eric refused to stay put) Eric managed to be self-sustaining, go to school, handle a job (outside and inside a local funeral home) and earn enough money for a summer surfing in California. He was returned to a local Connecticut hospital after an accident -- then to Memorial for four months after the cells reached his brain; he left it for his own pad, for a very real love affair with a young nurse who finally said ""let him go"" before the doctors did. Mrs. Lund's a professional writer (parts of this have already had magazine appearance) and contends toward the end, ""You can get used to anything."" You don't, you won't -- Eric has written his own ungentle and spiritually indomitable story from which there is no dispensation.

Pub Date: Nov. 4, 1974

ISBN: 0060956372

Page Count: -

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION