A positive, perceptive primer for cancer patients and caregivers.
A novelist and her husband share insights regarding his cancer journey in this inspirational memoir.
In 2013, Wiggins slipped off a ladder, with persistent back pain leading to a diagnosis of stage 3 multiple myeloma, a rare cancer formed by malignant plasma cells. The couple mobilized to address Wiggins’ care, which included living in temporary quarters near the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance while he underwent aggressive chemotherapy and stem cell transplants. They share their story through essays, poems, and, most particularly, letters written during this period, with some family/friend replies also included. Contributions from Wiggins, a scientist, focus on the clinical analysis of his condition. Rolnick, whose musings make up the majority of this memoir, is more literary and emotional, noting how she relished spooning within the “cocoon” of Wiggins’ arms and how the cocoon envelops “cancer patients, medical teams, and caregivers.” The couple weigh in on the major lab mix-up that could have cost Wiggins his life. Additionally, Rolnick touches on her mother’s death and granddaughter’s birth during this time. By memoir’s end, the couple are back in their Washington state home, with Wiggins in remission. Given that Wiggins’ cancer is incurable, however, the future remains uncertain. Rolnick concludes the book with a self-questionnaire, answering “Did you ever get angry?” with “I decided early on not to waste my time on anger,” and questions for readers to ponder, including practicalities of caregiving—how to handle stress, finances, etc. Rolnick (River of Angels, 2010, etc.) deploys her writer’s craft to evocative effect in this collection. She conjures up several striking images, not only her cocoon analogy, but also her comparison of Jim’s “secret strength” to “upside-down dogwood flowers.” Yet Rolnick isn’t simply lyrical; she also provides unsparing glimpses into the challenges and struggles faced by this couple, which she makes clear were made bearable by their loving connection and the ideology that “Finding joy is a choice.” Thus, while some of the less-than-revelatory friend replies could have been trimmed, overall, this collection delivers instructive, uplifting testimony.
A positive, perceptive primer for cancer patients and caregivers.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9845119-3-8
Page Count: 118
Publisher: Sedro Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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