Customer Reviews

Lisa's Story

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a woman surgeon who treats women for breast cancer, I was intrigued by this book. I found it delightful! It treats a serious subject with just the right touch. More importantly, it is loaded with insights into breast cancer, the way patients and health care professionals interact, and the reaction of family and friends. The front part of the book reprints the story of Lisa, who discovers a lump in her breast, copes with diagnosis, treatment - including surgery, chemotherapy, and reconstruction, and gets on with her life with a good sense of humor. The back part of the book has one of the best selections of resource material for breast cancer patients and their families that I have ever seen. This is not just a book for women - it's a book for their husbands and their families and friends. Finally, it's a book that medical students and physicians should read - it holds up a mirror to the medical profession and laughs gently at our shortcomings. Carol Scott-Conner MD PhD, Professor and Head, Department of Surgery, University of Iowa College of Medicine.

This is a good book in an interesting format - a collection of comic strips that chronicles Lisa's battle with breast cancer. This format is more accessible for many who read comic books or strips. There are several strips in Lisa's Story that are NOT available on the King Features website. The strips are from 1999, the book 2000. In 2006, there was a "second chapter" in the story: recurrence. I hope that Mr. Batiuk publishes an updated version of Lisa's Story collecting all of the strips, including the ones from 2006. Now out of print, but definitely worth ordering at the available prices - I ordered one for me, and two for the local oncology center's lending library. UPDATE: Please note that an update was published in late 2007.

There is a different book with a very similar title--Lisa's Story: the Other Shoe. I was disappointed when I received this book as a gift. It tells only part of Lisa's story.

Like so many breast cancer books out there, this one fuels one of the great myths of breast cancer today: Lisa survives the disease and they all live happily ever after. This and many of the texts on breast cancer tend to gloss over the reality: that no one is ever really safe from the possibility of their cancer returning. And if it does, there's really nothing funny about it.

If, like me, you stumbled upon this one while trying to find books on advanced breast cancer...don't waste your time or money. They don't deal with that reality here.

To their credit, the book does include an extensive list of references -- though only one dealt with the subject I am trying to research and it, as well as a few other Web sites I tried, were out-of-date and/or the information wasn't available.