Meticulous explication of the significance and value of narratives of illness by a Canadian (Univ. of Calgary) sociologist who, as a survivor of both a heart attack and cancer, is himself a ``wounded storyteller.'' Seriously ill people are wounded in both body and voice and ``need to become storytellers to recover the voices that illness and its treatment have taken away,'' according to Frank (At the Will of the Body: Reflections on Illness, 1991). He draws on illness accounts by Oliver Sacks, Norman Cousins, Gilda Radner, Steward Alsop, and other lesser known individuals to illustrate his points. Frank begins with a fairly esoteric analysis of these stories in terms of four body types (e.g., dominating, disciplined) and their responses to various embodiment problems (e.g., control, desire). Understanding these requires assimilating a rather daunting vocabulary: ``The dominating body shares the qualities of dissociation and lacking desire with the disciplined body, with the crucial difference that the dominating body is dyadic.'' More accessible is his discussion of the three basic narratives into which he categorizes illness stories: restitution narratives, in which the ill person is restored to health; chaos stories, in which life never gets better; and quests, in which the illness leads to new knowledge. For each type of narrative, Frank describes its powers and its limitations. He is deeply concerned with what he terms the pedagogy of sufferingwhat ill people have to teach society. Although illness stories can make a contribution to medical decision making, their value in Frank's view is not in clinical adjudication but in personal becoming, in addressing the question of how to live a good life. Too academic to have wide appeal, but worthwhile for students of ethics, medical and otherwise.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-226-25992-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Univ. of Chicago
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1995
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
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