Book Reviews: Breast Cancer Memoirs

Gail Konop Baker makes a bargain with God -– she wants to survive long enough to have a midlife crisis! Diagnosed with DCIS, Gail takes us through all the emotions, and family nip-ups that go along with her journey through breast cancer. This memoir is written with raw honesty, smooth prose, about marriage, families, friends and community, and how a diagnosis of cancer impacts those relationships —- both stable and shaky.

Shelley Lewis is not a spiritual person, and she settled for just one lesson from the whole experience: breast cancer doesn't change who you are. She worked all through treatment, dealt assertively with healthcare professionals, avoided chat rooms, and refuses little pink ribbons. This is an unsentimental, honest book.

Kelly Corrigan is George Corrigan's daughter. When she is diagnosed with breast cancer and her father gets prostate cancer, they look back on her childhood and look forward to life after treatment. Warm and funny, Kelly is avoiding growing up, even though she is a wife and mother. As a breast cancer patient, she's a bad example though -– she drinks alcohol, avoids exercise and healthy food, and doesn't ask if chemo will end her fertility. Well-written and truthful, with a wonderful picture of her father-daughter relationship.

Debra Jarvis is a hospital oncology chaplain, who gets diagnosed with breast cancer, and chooses to work during treatment, and be treated right where she works. She doesn't really focus on her own journey, but remains dedicated to helping other cancer patients in her care. Her sense of humor is quite irreverent, and her spirituality is very ecumenical. If laughter, empathy, and good listening skills could cure cancer, this book might just do the trick.

Susan Deborah King has been a Presbyterian minister, a psychotherapist, a writing teacher, and a poet. Diagnosed with breast cancer at age 51, Susan made time to turn her emotions into poetry. She writes of changes in body and spirit, about relationships with family and friends, and her own mortality. This book makes fine reading late at night when fears resurface, or when you need the fellowship of survivors.

Elizabeth Edwards's husband has run for national office twice, been involved in a sex scandal, and yet she writes; “In so many ways my life has been completely ordinary.” Few of us live out our breast cancer diagnosis in front of the entire American media, but she did, and still does so. This book is a good portrait of the Edwards family. But don’t expect this to be a breast cancer memoir, because she chooses to focus on relationships and politics.

Miriam Engleberg shows us how the breast cancer experience can be funny. In this graphic novel, she uses the comic strip form to mix dark humor and pop culture to tell the story of her fight with breast cancer. This book is funny, sad, irreverent and honest, and the artwork will remind you of Roz Chast. This one is hard to put down, and bears re-reading.

Katherine Russell Rich was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer at age 32. She was going through a divorce when she discovered a lump in her breast. Her diagnosis made her take a hard look at her life, and brought out her fighting spirit. She fired one oncologist, and then had a range of treatments to try and keep her cancer in check. Despite such a dire diagnosis, she writes with a wicked sense of humor. Read this book to see what overcoming the odds really means.