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Summary: WITH ILLNESS, IT'S EITHER FIGHT OR FLIGHT
Review: I have AIDS, and during the past 10 years I've found that there are really only two ways to approach serious illness: You fight it, or you give in to it. There are times for both. When I want to fight, I re-read Emmanuel Dreuihle's brilliant but out-of-print book "Mortal Embrace," which relentlessly uses the metaphors of war to describe the battle against the enemy unseen. How it energizes me for the battles ahead! But when I am forced to give in, I read "Intoxicated By My Illness" by Anatole Broyard, which offers me a whole new perspective on how to cope with serious illness: Enjoy it! Well, perhaps "enjoy" is to strong a word to describe what Broyard tries to communicate. He calls illness a journey, and he delights in the fact that it brought him back into intimate contact with his otherwise taken-for-granted body. He is fascinated -- even as he is pained -- by what is going on inside of him. He uses the changes in his body to illuminate and strengthen the best parts of his soul. He proves the adage that suffering ennobles, without being self-pitying. He exults in the journey -- he "enjoys" it! -- and that was an entirely new way (for me) to look at illness. He is a kind and gentle and wise writer, and his loss from prostate cancer was a loss to us all ... except for the wisdom he shares in this little book.
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Summary: To be alive when I die
Review: These are Anatole Broyard's words and his final wish.I have never read a book about death that was so uplifting. There is a complete lack of morbidity, self pity, or self indulgence in this writing. I would strongly recommend it for anyone with a life threatening illness. The author's courage in the face of serious illness is daunting. He commits to living the last of his life with even more awareness...a thought that each of us, regardless of health, could employ.
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Summary: To be alive when I die
Review: These are Anatole Broyard's words and his final wish. I have never read a book about death that was so uplifting. There is a complete lack of morbidity, self pity, or self indulgence in this writing. I would strongly recommend it for anyone with a life threatening illness. The author's courage in the face of serious illness is daunting. He commits to living the last of his life with even more awareness...a thought that each of us, regardless of health, could employ.
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Summary: Dear Doctor
Review: To my doctor . . . and the doctors to whom I will bring my children; who may treat my loved ones in their last illness . . . please read this book. If you don't want to commit to the whole book read the title essay. And then read "The Patient Examines the Doctor." Your response to these essays will be a kind of test I am giving you - an interview technique, as it were, to find out if you are the one I want to be my "familiar in a foreign country."
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