A one-of-a-kind cancer story that makes for a riveting, if not particularly illuminating, account.
A detailed memoir from a registered nurse about her battles with cancer, again and again and again.
Zercoe can’t seem to escape tragedy. As a young child, she was thrown from the window of a school bus when the driver took a turn too quickly. As a young wife and mother, she was told by her brother-in-law that her husband had been electrocuted and killed. As a businesswoman, wife and mother of two, she found a small lump in her breast. And that was only the beginning. A year and a half later, after her first mastectomy, the cancer returned, forcing her to have a lumpectomy followed by yet another mastectomy. Five years later, there was a splitting pain in her side, which led doctors to discover she had pancreatic cancer. Throughout these tragedies, Zercoe juggled the minutiae of everyday life—marriage woes, brooding teenage children, lost promotions—and strove to find joy. Her cancer treatments ranged from chemo to surgery to support groups as she survived one medical mess after another. Discovering her family’s extensive history with cancer gave Zercoe the drive to let her unique case help medical research. And she needed all her strength and heart to face the news of her young daughter’s own cancer diagnosis. It took everything being stripped away to show Zercoe what mattered most: love and family in the present moment. The litany of misfortune can sometimes make for hard reading; there’s so much plot that the narration lacks a pause, a place for readers to check in with how Zercoe was feeling at the moment. What’s more, the many details of problems that arose when life wasn’t at stake, such as nannies who quit or living in a house as it was remodeled, can sound trivial. The narration often strays into real diary entries, which don’t do much to illuminate Zercoe’s internal journey. But there’s reward in the memoir’s second half, when it focuses on the author’s hopeful transformation through spirituality and her forming true bonds with women she wants to help. In these final chapters, Zercoe’s compassion and humanity shine, and readers can revel in not only her relative health, but her ultimate happiness. A foreword by Margaret A. Tempero, director of the UCSF Pancreas Center, offers additional insight.
A one-of-a-kind cancer story that makes for a riveting, if not particularly illuminating, account.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-0989581547
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Hidden Oak Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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