About surviving cancer. The author was an actress (teaching children theater classes, doing voices on the air, commercials, etc) married and in a loving relationship with two children when cancer struck. She describes the shock of diagnosis, the difficult treatments, the awkwardness of people not knowing what to say, the absolute drain of being so ill for so very long. The strangeness she felt when it seemed to finally be over: she’d made it, she’d survived, but fighting off cancer had consumed her life for so many years- nothing felt the same. It deeply affected her family too. How terribly hard it was for them. How confused her young children were about some things (yet totally accepting of others), angry when she was unable to care for them, and so on. All the ups and downs, how they made it through. Especially with her husband. I admit, some of the parts about how cancer treatment affected their love life was told a bit too intimately for my taste! And for such a very long time her relationship with food was affected afterwards. What it’s like to go through this illness and survive it is described in such brutal detail, it can be hard to read- but it’s all lightened by her humor. Jokes everywhere. (Though they didn’t always make me laugh- sometimes I just don't get jokes). Something else took me by surprise- her exploration of faith didn’t bore or exasperate me (my usual reaction). What she said made sense, I respected and appreciated how she worked her way through re-evaluating life, and also explored some alternative ideas and views along the way (once consulting a shaman, another time visiting a naturopath, for example). It’s a very candid, forthright story about one woman’s journey through the black gulf of cancer and out the other side.

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A great book about a yucky subject. ( )

Ein grossartiges Buch. Durch ihren Mut und die Ausdauer hat sie diese Krankheit bezwungen. Ihre wunderbare Familie, ihre Aerztin - haben ihr geholfen, dem Krebs "einhalt" zu gebieten. Eine Geschicht, die unter die Haut geht. ( )

I read this pre-cancer and it was heartbreaking and funny and poignant and post-cancer it's even more of those things cause I can empathise. ( )