Living on the Margins: Women Writers on Breast Cancer [Paperback]

Hilda Raz (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2001

In this powerful anthology of personal narratives, essays, shaped journals, and poems, eighteen women writers share their experiences with breast cancer -- from diagnosis and treatment, to aspects of marriage, motherhood, friendship, sexuality, work, and recurrence.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

There's much more lost than just a breast when a woman finds herself "slip[ping] through cancer's narrowing noose." Women fight, reflect, reason, give thanks, rage, weep, and howl in these heartbreaking essays and poems as they lose mothers, husbands, futures, and sometimes, hope and faith. Stunning expressions of emotion will burn into your mind: "I want to snatch the scalpels from the surgeons' hands and plunge them into the earth where they'll cut no more.... I'd try to find my lovely pink nipples in the midst of my discarded flesh." "I want to thank [my breast] for all its kindness to me for so many years. Like a Navaho thanking the deer for surrendering its life." The reader as well as the writer feels tears welling at the reaction of one writer's 20-year-old son to her diagnosis: "Mom, it doesn't matter if you have two breasts, or one, or none, or three. I love you just the same and you're the best mom in the world." With so many powerful passages, you'll more than likely find yourself holding your breath as you read. --Joan Price --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Imagine finding a support group where all the other members eloquently and artfully express your own private thoughts, and you don't have to say a word. Edited by poet Raz (Divine Honors), this collection features accomplished authors who have encountered breast cancer in their lives. As with any compilation, the styles and quality of the pieces vary. Those by Alicia Ostriker, Carol Dine, Janet Sternburg, and Elaine Green are riveting and compelling. Yet the interview with Dr. Susan Love seems out of place among the first-person treatises, and Marilyn Hacker's "Journal Entries" seems interminable. Other contributors include Maxine Kumin, Safiya Henderson-Holmes, Annette Williams Jaffee, and Amy Ling. People familiar with these authors might want to read their takes on this all-consuming event. Women seeking narrative "support" will find here a renewed sense of purpose. As Greene notes, quoting Anatole Broyard: "It seems to me that every seriously ill person needs to develop a style for his illness.... Sometimes your vanity is the only thing that's keeping you alive." Recommended.ABette-Lee Fox, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Persea Books (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892552700
• ISBN-13: 978-0892552702
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,423,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational, April 21, 2001

By 

Joyce Carlson (Los Angeles, Ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living on the Margins: Women Writers on Breast Cancer (Hardcover)

I got this book after my close and long time girlfriend was diagnosed with breast cancer. I have read it straight thru and will share it with her. I can't say enough for the brilliant writer's stories of courage and their tenacity to face life head on! Even for those of us fortunate not to have to go thru this terrible cancer ordeal, it is a book of courage and strength and about what really's important in this life. It reminds us of how precious each day is.