Amazon.com Review
The worst scars of breast cancer come not from facing death or disfigurement, but from "the psychological and emotional impact of the disease, its treatments, and the attitudes of our culture toward women's breasts," says breast-cancer survivor Elaine Ratner. Yet those seem to be the issues that physicians and books help with least. Ratner starts with a list of 18 insights that she wishes someone had taught her earlier in her treatment, such as "Expectations influence outcome," "A one-breasted body isn't ugly, just different," "Losing a breast doesn't have to affect your sex life," and "If you want things to change, you have to speak up." These realizations became the inspiration and organization of this book. Ratner shares her personal details as she describes her journey, her vulnerability, and her realizations. She is plucky and outspoken, often jarring your assumptions and convictions with statements such as these:
- "A woman ... doesn't need a breast to live well. A breast doesn't pump your blood or digest your food. You don't breathe with it or use it to walk or talk."
- "Your lover is going to look to you for a signal that it is all right to go on loving you, physically as well as emotionally. It's up to you to reassure him that you are not fragile or damaged.... Before you can convince him, you have to believe it yourself."
Ratner talks like your friend and mentor, a woman who has gone through breast cancer, lost a breast, and emerged healthy and eager to help and inspire others with the mantra that "feistiness is good for your health."
--Joan Price
From Publishers Weekly
A woman with an immensely positive attitude, Ratner, a Berkeley, Calif.-based editor and writer, offers this guide to the psychological and emotional aspects of breast cancer. Ratner describes her own encounter with the disease in 1995, when, at age 51, she found two lumps that were later diagnosed as malignant. The experience led her to challenge prevailing myths about breasts and women's self-image, and to assert her right to make decisions about her own body. She urges women to take time to learn about their treatment options, to find a doctor they can trust, to have confidence in their own decisionsAand to expect a good outcome. She especially counsels sharing thoughts and feelings with family, friends and even one's children. Her own experience was indeed a positive one: four years after cancer, she is healthy and happy, and she reminds women that the great majority of those with breast cancer will, like her, recover. Never saccharine, and often adamant (she argues that women shouldn't let doctors convince them to have breast reconstruction on grounds that they would be incomplete without it), Ratner delivers an upbeat message about assertiveness, strength and positive thinking. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
