The Wall Street Journal-20080126-WEEKEND JOURNAL- Books- Five Best
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WEEKEND JOURNAL; Books: Five Best
[These works vividly depict the challenges of living with illness, says the Journal's Laura Landro]
1. Death Be Not Proud
By John Gunther
Harper & Row, 1949
Journalist and novelist John Gunther's account of his 17-year-old son's battle with a brain tumor that ultimately took his life is as relevant today as it was when Gunther wrote it more than a half- century ago as "a tribute to the power, the wealth, the unconquerable beauty of the human spirit, will and soul." Though the surgeon who delivered the bad news was blunt -- "Your son has a malignant glioma and it will kill him" -- young Johnny's will to survive remained undimmed, as did his parents' determination to save him, trying even experimental treatments that included mustard gas and a macrobiotic- style diet. "Johnny loved life desperately and we loved Johnny desperately, and it was our duty to try everything and keep him alive as long as possible," Gunther writes. Behind Johnny's brave, energetic front, he was all too conscious of how little time he had to ace his high-school classes, to get into Harvard, to pursue a budding romance. His courage touched everyone around him; as one of his doctors wrote in a condolence letter after his death, "for such there must be an immortality which we who tinker at the body may guess at but not understand."
2. Man to Man
By Michael Korda
Random House, 1996
Michael Korda, a prolific author and the former editor in chief of Simon & Schuster, writes unflinchingly in "Man to Man" about his experience with prostate cancer, which will strike one in six men in their lifetime. Though many will survive the disease thanks to medical advances, the treatment and its aftermath pose daunting challenges that can undermine a man's traditional notions of masculinity, virility and power. Korda, who was diagnosed at age 61, shows no concern for his own medical privacy as he tries to educate others with a frank discussion of difficult subjects, such as impotence, incontinence and the strains that prostate cancer can cause in a marriage. He never loses his wry wit or sense of humor, as when he weighs the pros and cons of penile implants. Men diagnosed with cancer, Korda advises, should act more the way women do in similar straits: Learn everything you can, talk to each other, support each other and share what you know.
3. Love and Other Infectious Diseases
By Molly Haskell
Morrow, 1990
Andrew Sarris and Molly Haskell were star film critics in New York in the 1980s -- husband and wife with a shared passion for movies and each other -- when Sarris was struck with a frightening and devastating illness that tore through his body and ripped up their lives. Initially diagnosed with a form of encephalitis, he was later found to have a viral infection and a neurological disorder caused by inflammation of the spinal cord. Sarris suffered every complication in the book, from pneumonia and a perforated colon to paralysis, bedsores, septicemia and hallucinations. His care and all the chores he had once taken care of, including paying bills, fell to Haskell, who soon faced her own medical crisis after months of reserving her strength for her spouse. Though the bonds of marriage and family in the face of illness sometimes stifle and enrage her, Haskell emerges "feeling deeply and continuously in the marrow of my bones a reason for staying alive."
4. No Such Thing as a Bad Day
By Hamilton Jordan
Longstreet, 2000
The title pretty much sums up the way to look at life once you've survived cancer. In the case of Hamilton Jordan, Jimmy Carter's former chief of staff, the cancer came in three forms: lymphoma, skin and prostate. Jordan, who believes his cancers were caused by exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam, uses his memoir to reflect on the war, his Southern upbringing and his political career. But the book's real value is its message about the importance of taking charge in the fight against cancer, assuming responsibility for one's own medical care and fighting for life as aggressively as possible. Jordan and his wife, Dorothy, founded a camp for kids with cancer, and he remains an advocate for cancer research. In "No Such Thing as a Bad Day," he conveys how the fear of cancer and the prospect of death gave him a new sense of purpose and an appreciation for life's blessings. The smallest joys -- "watching a beautiful sunset, a hug from my child, a laugh with Dorothy" -- take on special meaning.
5. Cancer Vixen
By Marisa Acocella Marchetto
Knopf, 2006
The graphic-novel format has become a powerful outlet for memoirs of illness, and none is so compelling, amusing and inspiring as this brassy, color-splashed tale from Marisa Acocella Marchetto. Having made her name as a cartoonist for the New Yorker, Glamour and other magazines, Marchetto was in love and about to be married for the first time when she was diagnosed at age 43 with breast cancer. Thus begins a frightening and often confusing journey through treatment, with her overbearing but loving mother usually in tow, her stable of best friends and her patron St. Philomena providing psychic and spiritual support. Marchetto's imaginary conversations with the baby she will never have are quietly devastating, but there is also comic relief, as in her description of how cancer patients, rather than face the real danger, often focus on absurd worries -- in Marchetto's case, she frets about a thinner, younger, cancer-free vixen stealing her husband, the charming Italian owner of popular New York watering hole Da Silvano. Along with practical advice about surviving breast cancer, she suggests important coping techniques: Keep working, keep loving and always wear fabulous shoes to chemo appointments.
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Ms. Landro, an assistant managing editor at The Wall Street Journal and its Informed Patient columnist, is the author of "Survivor: Taking Control of Your Fight Against Cancer" (1998).
