I had very high expectations for this book. I expected this to be one of those books. You know the ones. They change your life, you can't put them down, you buy copies for your closest friends. I didn't get it from the library, because I knew I would want to own it.
Well, Kelly Corrigan didn't let me down. I absolutely loved it. It was real, funny, heartbreaking, and uplifting. She is a great writer, and she captures the essence of this generation (of which I am a part) flawlessly. I cannot watch her essay Transcending without tears spilling from my eyes... Transcending
I will recommend the book to all of my friends without hesitation. I am very glad I bought it. ( )

I loved every page. Funny. Endearing. Real. ( )

N.B.: This review actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be when I re-read it, as I thought it would be yesterday when I thought about my attitude towards ‘comedy’ memoirs in the past—I wanted to represent girlie, but I was worried that girlie was going to, I don’t know, screw herself up in the future when everyone becomes a Five in the future and girlie is left as the only Two left; like she’s obsolete, right: she’s out of style—but I would get it if you thought that the below doesn’t really reflect an appreciation of femmie in all her ways, right.

……………

(The innocence factor starts strong in the book and then starts to wear off, actually they both seemed bad; she lied about going to church as a birthday present and they lied about her father’s health because she was on vacation, lying to escape the heat.... but from the innocence place I began:)

The most typical experience in life, I suppose, is one of unsatisfactory substitution instead of satisfactory addition: we try to substitute a perfect relationship with spouse and children for our wanting relationship with our parents..... instead of going from strength to strength. This girl, in so many ways typical and from whom life apparently did not demand the sacrifices of an Anne Frank, nevertheless knew better, and understood that her success with her husband and daughters rested on her success with her father and mother. In certain ways my own life has not been so charmed as hers but I do not resent her her happiness, to the extent that it was possible for her.... Of course unhappiness and difficult times comes to all of us, sometimes, especially as an adult, and as a child she fought with her mother, a bit.

I found it to be sorta a good book but if I tried too hard to boil it down into words it wouldn’t look like much.

.... And of course I guess that she wouldn’t have done those little bad things if she thought that it was wrong.... And that’s the only thing that bothers me, not her aversion to coining metaphors or whatever.

.... That was all about the first half. The second half is pretty similar, maybe a bit better, but I couldn’t find another topic to treat at length.

But I guess it’s mostly ok. (It’s not Pure Wholesome, IMO, but it’s in the general vicinity.)

I guess it raises the question of how much medical intervention talk you can let into your life before you become a valetudinarian, (ie you’re not really living), but I don’t have a quotable answer to that one. (Ironically I read this book, dream about midlife, instead of another anxiety book.)

Then again it’s hardly all business, which is good.

.... As a sociological thing, thinking that the doctors aren’t human enough but not being in favor of the new age (“does it really matter what I’m thinking?”), a certain ambivalence, is pretty representative. (Also, mostly liking her dad’s faith but not having it herself.)

.... I liked the part about not being a nun or whatever because not everybody has to be a nun, but if it were me, I’d look into dialing down the attachment a notch. That’s probably not my own problem, attachment to fathers and children, I mean, so it’s easy for me to say, but.

This was an easy and fast read with an ok story. I liked the author's voice and she made it easy for me to see myself in her shoes. I just thought she could have done a better job of writing the story so that it was more enticing. There was a lot going on in her life, but it didn't feel like there was when I was reading it.

I was hoping throughout the book that she would get to know her mother. I kind of got the feeling that her mother has a story to tell, but Corrigan never took the time to learn it...of course, to be fair, she kind of has her hands full. ( )

It's not just a story of a woman whom is diagnosed with breast cancer, but of her relationships with her family; mother, father, brothers, now and when she was growing up. (and finding she is still growing up.)
She loves her father unconditionally and is working on appreciating her mother. She's working on the relationship with her husband and her growing daughters.
And then there's the issue of working through her cancer and the ongoing cancer of her father.
This is a great book, though I've read various reviews about the author being a whining brat. She is a father's daughter, but not what I would call the current daddy's girl stereo type.
She is intense, she is caring, she has her faults. She confesses to all.
What I enjoyed was the wit and that it isn't as intense a "breast cancer" read as one I've read in the past. ( )