The Book of Jesse: A Story of Youth, Illness, and Medicine [Hardcover]

Michael Rowe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 2002

The story of a young man who dies at the age of 19 from complications of a liver transplant. Written by his father who was by his son's side throughout his struggle and at the moment of his death, the book is about parents and children, doctors and patients, and the perils and promise of high-technology medicine. The author's quest to salvage meaning from disaster through a journey of exploration into Jesse's life and death stands at the center of the book.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

By nature of his profession, Yale University sociology professor Rowe must approach the world with a sense of compassionate detachment. This was no easy feat, however, when Rowe's son Jesse, who was almost 20 years old, died in 1995, following a lengthy illness that involved liver transplants and protracted hospital stays. Rowe's response to the tragedy is a touching tribute of a father's love to his fallen son. Through journal entries, Rowe monitored his son's progress, and was able to chart the effects of the medicine and surgeries doctors used in their attempts to save Jesse. Rowe was also able to capture and transcribe tender moments like Jesse's hesitation about being moved to the top of the donor list for a new liver, and Rowe's wife (Jesse's stepmother) putting Chapstick on the young man's dry lips a few days before his death. Rowe also depicts poignant scenes outside of the hospital, such as his interactions with his younger son. The poise with which Rowe writes belies his anguish., yet he manages to turn one of the most harrowing experiences of his life into a beautiful elegy. His interpretations of Jesse's drawings, which are included in the book, provide further insight into this father's love.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this memoir of his son, who died at age 19 after two liver transplants, Rowe (Crossing the Border: Encounters Between Homeless People and Outreach Workers) tries to cover Jesse's life, the family's grief and frustration in dealing with a chronically ill child, and the performance of the medical/ nursing team that cared for Jesse. It's too much. Excerpts from Jesse's short stories may be highly significant to his father, but psychological speculation on the meaning the characters shed on Jesse's relationship to his disease is not particularly helpful to the reader. Similarly, details from the father's diary revealing his rivalry with his ex-wife concerning who got to sign consent forms for medical procedures does nothing to make the reader like the family. When Jesse's disease progresses to the terminal stage, there is little empathy for this father as he tries to pin blame on the medical personnel as the basis of a malpractice suit. This book is aimed at those who have suffered through the terminal illness of a loved one, but it is so personalized that it comes across as self-serving. Not recommended.
Kim Uden Rutter, Lake Villa Dist. Lib., IL
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Francis Press; 1 edition (September 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966505166
• ISBN-13: 978-0966505160
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,754,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love at Full Arousal, February 2, 2003

By 

Steve Weiner (Ashland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Book of Jesse: A Story of Youth, Illness, and Medicine (Hardcover)

Life on an intensive care unit is such as to induce family members to forget that there is, or has ever been, normal life elsewhere. It is the great merit of Michael Rowe's book to remind the reader that his son Jesse had always attempted to build such a normal life for himself, even as a child battling numerous illnesses. Jesse did this by creating many drawings, and Rowe includes both reproductions and verbal analyses of them in the book. The effect is to normalize Jesse for us, to re-humanize him, to lift him out of the patient role, as he lies teetering between life and death on the ICU. I took care of my father during his critical illness of five-and-a-half years, and I can attest that the book eloquently captures the minute-by-minute feel of intensive caregiving, of love at full emergency arousal.

4.0 out of 5 stars A father's story of his son's life and death, March 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Book of Jesse: A Story of Youth, Illness, and Medicine (Hardcover)

The Book of Jesse is about the life, illness and death of a young man. It is equally the story of his father's efforts to care for his son in the face of serious and ultimately fatal illness. It is about the family's struggles and, most of all, about the mysteries of creativity and of human development as long as life is breathed. In his introduction, Michael Rowe says that the writer dons"the mantle of creative artist while dealing in the coin of true story; and let his readers decide whether he has written a good story, and a true story."

In my view, this true story is also a good story. It is surprising that a reader should look forward to reading a book about the illness and death of a young man. Yet the book is intrinsically interesting and compelling, both in style and substance. The use of Jesse's drawings offers a symbolic focus that reminds us of the power and transcendence of art. The moving back and forth between events before and during Jesse's last illness and after his death, while confusing at times, also works because it helps to show the varying moods and tugs that his father and family encounter. The impact of modern technological medicine on patients, families, and medical staff is also well described.

There are no easy answers here, and no manipulations either. The author's style is straightforward and honest. Despite the unanswered questions and the grieving that continues, this book leaves the reader with a sense of wholeness both about Jesse and his father's struggle to understand his son and himself.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Book of Jesse, February 24, 2003

By 

Gloria M. Coughlin (Chittenango, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Book of Jesse: A Story of Youth, Illness, and Medicine (Hardcover)

The Book of Jesse by Michael Rowe is the story of a family's love and suffering as they watch and try to help their loved one struggle to stay alive.
It is a book in which the author has shared his thoughts and feelings with us. In doing so, he has put into words what many of us have experienced in one way or another.
As a retired member of the madical profession, I highly recommend it be read by everyone in the medical field. It will enhance and renew their empathy.
To the author I say "God Bless you and your family for all that you did for Jesse."
- Gloria M. Coughlin