Customer Reviews

Mom's Cancer

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
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It's less about Mom than her three adult children (pseudonymously portrayed here as the narrator, Nurse Sis, and Kid Sis) and how they cope with the news and subsequent treatment for Mom. Vivid visual metaphors (the Operation Game, superheroes, the "tightrope" of treatment) combine with heartfelt writing (smokers won't be pleased with how they're portrayed) for an unforgettable portrait of a family in crisis. It has a simple, clean graphic style that will appeal to readers who are not regular readers of graphic novels.

If your mother smokes, this, and and "the patch" would make an excellent present.

My family shared many of the experiences of the author's family during my mother's cancer. It's compelling, touching and hopeful.

"What to do when pain rips through our brains like a tornado. We need the truth." - Barbara, the author's mother's, wrote that thought after reading this book.

This is an excellent graphic novel about one family's experience with Stage 4 Large-Cell Carcinoma (a.k.a. - Cancer).

A story is often only as good as the heart of the person telling it. If that sentiment is true, it explains in large part why this story is so good. If you can make a story about dealing with your mother's terminal cancer funny and life-affirming, you are creating a pretty intelligent and well-crafted piece of writing.

His artwork is consistently excellent, never distracting, and peaceful in the midst of life-threatening circumstances. The visuals are coordinated with the words fluidly, immediately conveying the ideas and emotions with very few ambiguities. This graphic novel won an Eisner Award in it's online format.

Brian Fies tells us in the preface, "Although I distrust stories with lessons, here is one: No one will care more about your life than you do, and no one is better qualified to chart its course than you are. You are the expert."

As you might expect, like all real stories, this one does not end with everyone living happily ever after. But fortunately, the characters do re-prioritize and choose to change the remaining time in their lives to live as happily as they can until there is no after.

As the preface accurately creates the expectation "Mom's Cancer is an honest, earnest effort to turn something bad into something good." I admire and encourage that human artistic drive, and Brian Fies is successful in achieving that goal and many other beautiful artistic goals.

Recently I read the book Tyranny and I had a problem with the fact that it was solely about her eating disorders and as much as I wanted to care about the main character, I found that I just couldn't feel the empathy that the book was asking me to feel. One of the main problems with having a book about the author's personal problems, be it eating disorder or loneliness or cancer is that the book can become more therapy than art.

In this book, the art is primary and the angst surrounding the artwork is secondary. The book is about the author's mother struggling with cancer but it's not just about cancer. It's not a complete cancer book. Instead it's about who the mother is and how she is dealing with the cancer. Sometimes there are good days. Sometimes there are bad days. The siblings fight. The family comes together. The stepfather became a crazy hippie which is both good for him and bad for everyone else.

I guess the main difference between this book and others of its kind is the lack of self-indulgence. Not to create a false statistic but 90% of semi-autobiographical books are self-absorbed little numbers and if the books are about cancer or disease then that percentage rises (ok I just made it up but you get the point). THis one is actually entertaining and the characters are fully realized. I love the part where the siblings are transformed into superheroes and their fights are given epic metaphorical significance.

I also love the fact that the mother gets to speak for herself in the end.

This is a beautiful and moving book. I don't know anyone that close to me with cancer (several internet friends and distant cousins maybe) but I would recommend it to anyone - anyone with cancer in their family, yes - but anyone else. It is that good.

What a great book! Just loved the way the author used images to help tell such a powerful story. It is well done and inspiring.

I came across this book by mistake looking for something else. Something about the artwork and the brutally honest theme seemed to appeal to me, I love a true story more than a fictional one. When I got the book, I read the whole thing in just over an hour, then read it again and again. The story is mostly what it says, his mothers cancer. But every family has more than one story and Mr. Fies is very willing to let us in on his family's foibles and (sometimes embarassing) story. It is stories that most of us could tell, if we were willing to be that honest, but most of us are not that interested in laying out our family issues in this way. In fact, we owe him and his family a debt of gratitude for being willing to share this horrible experience with us.

If you smoke, get this book TODAY and stop. Just stop. If you love someone who smokes, get them this book. If you have a nurse or doctor in your life, give them a copy of this book. It shows the process of serious cancer from (mostly) a laymans standpoint. This book should be in the waiting room of every doctors office.

I bought this book for my husband and his siblings. My mother-in-law was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer this summer. My husband and I have both read the book and it helps to know that we aren't the only family that has traveled this road. Regardless of what part of this journey your family is at, I would highly recommend reading this book. The illustrations make it an easy read and it'll be well worth your time.

I'm a consumer health educator and lost my father to a very rare kind of cancer when he was 58, so this book hit me on more than one level of my life. Fies has done a wonderful job. What I find most impressive is that Fies doesn't shy away from discussing the "blame" aspect of a cancer diagnosis. The question of personal accountability for disease is very much part of the family conversation during a health crisis--whether there is scientific evidence for causality or not!--and it needs to be talked about. I'm hoping this graphic novel does make that conversation easier for all of us.

A very insightful look at interacting with, as well as relating to, a loved one who has an incurable disease such as Cancer. The author was obviously deeply involved with his mother's day to day battle with her illness and his own ups and downs along the way. The book was well written and the graphics were exceptionally well done. Bravo.

I can't stand cancer books. I've done the cancer train too many times, both as bystander and patient. Most cancer books get it wildly wrong. Everything is either a bid for a false sense of control or a cheerleading session. Mom's Cancer gets it right. Cancer is a disease the whole family shares, a disease that doesn't end at the points you think it should, whatever the outcome. When I first flipped through Mom's Cancer I wasn't ready to read it. I don't think I'd give this book to someone at the beginning of Cancer Land. Now, a few years later, it's one of the most meaningful graphic novels I've seen. I think the pages on conversation subtext might be the best aspect of the book. Deeply personal and completely universal, Mom's Cancer is an excellent book.