Author and Salon.com senior staff writer Mary Elizabeth
Williams has just released a most amazing book. It tells the story of her
diagnosis and treatment of stage four malignant melanoma over the course of
several years. Cancer memoirs today are – unfortunately – a dime a dozen, but
this book is about as far from the “I-fought-my-courageous-battle-with-cancer-and-heroically-beat-it” formula as you can get. Instead, we readers get
a superbly written and very human view of what maintaining a life and a family
in the face of probable death looks like.
It contains a wealth of medical information around the emerging use of
immunotherapy as the first truly new treatment for cancer in a hundred years,
presented in easy to understand plain English.
Her story takes us through the traumas of surgery, recovery,
and recurrence, and relates the loss of friends and the difficulty of holding a
family together, but it is the author’s deft and frequent use of humor that got
this reader through this troubling tale.
Her humor is as natural and insightful as it is pervasive throughout.
The story of her relationship with her best friend Debbie is as emotionally
touching as anything I’ve ever read.
It should be noted that this book is for everyone, whether
or not cancer has yet touched your life.
As a person who has – so far – survived a cancer diagnosis
whose preliminary prediction was for a 5% chance of three-year survival, I feel
a unique bond as she shares the cringe worthy details of the cancer experience
from both a physical as well as emotional point of view. As I read through this book, the word that
kept popping up in my head was “honest.” We are presented with a brand of
honesty that is so direct, unassuming, and shameless as to be almost painful.
Those of you who are already familiar with Ms. Williams
writing will know that she is particularly adept at writing pithy endings to
her articles, and without spoiling, let me just say she knocks this ending out
of the park.
Finally, I have two pieces of advice: buy this wonderful book, and go with the jumbo box of tissues.
About the author:
Mary
Elizabeth Williams is a senior staff writer for award-winning Salon.com and has
appeared in the New York Times and numerous other national and regional publications.
The author of Gimme Shelter and A Series of Catastrophes and Miracles, she
lives in New York City with her family.
[Full disclosure: I have been virtual friends with the
author for several years, and she has been uniquely supportive of my own modest
efforts at writing. She was also kind enough to pen the blurb on the back cover
of my own cancer memoir. - Frank]
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