Prostate Cancer: Treatment & Recovery: Confronting the Emotional and Physical Challenges

Rating:
Summary: The Epilogue
Review: After being diagnosed with prostate cancer in my mid 50s and at least in the near-term saddled with erectile dysfunction after surgery, I am interested in learning more about the male sexuality as it relates to this experience. Handy's book published in 1996 leads the reader through several hundred pages of ruminations about his waning sexual vitality. Males, I learned, are preoccupied with their erections. Handy is no exception. He shares his thoughts, feelings and insights about his medical condition sprinkled with some factual data. There, are, however, other books that tackle the biotechnical aspects of this condition more completely and more currently. It is Handy's rumination that is the focus of the book. One might experience the subtext as his effort to heal himself. The ruminative and erection centered content of the book led me to speed through it and almost put it down before reading the epilogue that fortunately his editor requested. The epilogue is of a nature that the reader might not think that the author actually wrote it. It is authentic and reflective. It provides the reader the answer of what it is like to suffer from erectile dysfunction. There is a real sense of intimacy and eloquence in the epilogue that is not present in the balance of the book. He effectively articulates the confusion and loss of self and personal direction that I am sure many others experience. In particular his discussion of his relationships and marriage provide insight and will perhaps make readers feel less alone. I strongly recommend the epilogue as a good piece of literature.