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GOODBYE TO CLOCKS TICKING by Joseph Monninger Kirkus Star

GOODBYE TO CLOCKS TICKING

How We Live While Dying

by Joseph Monninger

Pub Date: March 7th, 2023
ISBN: 9781586423605
Publisher: Steerforth

A life lived—and savored—in the shadow of a fatal disease.

Three days after retirement, Monninger—a prolific novelist, professor of English, and avid outdoorsman—was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Lucky enough to qualify for a new drug treatment that promised to hold off the disease’s inevitable progression, he devoted himself to thinking and writing about what mattered most to him. This memoir records the results of the first year of that journey, offering “an appreciation of what makes life worth living, and how a cancer diagnosis is both earth-shaking and, simultaneously, merely a part of the everyday.” Particularly striking are the author’s reflections on the difficulties of acknowledging one’s mortality even at an advanced age; the awe one must feel at the sophistication of modern medical interventions; the intractable fear one must confront after becoming dependent on others and losing a sense of dignity; and the detachment from trivial concerns that comes with facing death. Monninger’s frankness in detailing his vulnerabilities as a cancer patient and humor in framing some of the frustrations that arise as one loses physical autonomy are memorable and inspiring. Also notable are the descriptions of where the author took comfort as he struggled with moments of acute panic and more routine anxiety—e.g., in simple conversations with loved ones, experiencing the diverse beauty of the natural world, and immersing himself in books. In unassuming yet convincing terms, the author also conveys the important message that “cancer does not bring any particular clarity about life…no big, shining lesson”—though it may, as it did for Monninger, intensify the desire to understand and make peace with one’s ultimate commitments. This brief but incisive record of survival is all the more compelling for that humility.

A poignant, instructive account of reckoning with a terminal illness.