Ordinary Life: A Memoir of Illness [Hardcover]

Kathlyn Conway (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1997

This text looks at the impersonality of the medical system, through the author's experience with breast cancer and its many ramifications in her everyday life. It is intended as a reflection on a universal experience - the loss of control in the face of a medical crisis.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When Kathlyn Conway was diagnosed with breast cancer and lymphoma, her reaction was not one of weakness or resignation so much as indignation. The 40-year-old mother of two had already survived a bout with Hodgkin's disease in her youth. To have to face the terrible course of chemotherapy, as well as the fear and uncertainty, amid the travails of her normal routine, seemed sheer agony. As a professional psychotherapist, Conway had training that provided her some insight, but it could not stave off the growing sense of despair that came as she grew sicker. Incredible in its steely look at life and death, Kathlyn Conway's book achieves the writer's essential task, putting her experience into unyielding, unforgettable prose.

From Library Journal

A psychotherapist with a husband and two children, Conway has been diagnosed with cancer three times in her 47 years. Her first brush, a diagnosis of Hodgkin's disease, occurred when she was in graduate school. In recounting here her breast cancer experience, Conway offers a searing memoir of her terror, isolation, and personal concerns. She documents her fear of dying, the pain of surgery, questions of how clothes would fit after surgery, and concerns for her family. Conway was not a stoic patient, often lashing out at her family in fear and anger. Detailing a different kind of survivor?filled with pain and anguish, worrying over small details?her book is more realistic than most narratives and should thus reassure other women undergoing cancer treatment. Highly recommended.?Janet M. Schneider, James A. Haley Veterans Hosp., Tampa, Fla.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 268 pages
• Publisher: W H Freeman & Co; 1 edition (January 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0716730367
• ISBN-13: 978-0716730361
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,656,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Believing That Everyone Is Unique - Think Fof Yourself, January 18, 2006

By 

Katherine Graham "Katherine Graham" (Sparta, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ordinary Life: A Memoir of Illness (Hardcover)

This is one of the most important books ever written by the brilliant Kathlyn Conway in a most difficult genre, Memoir. Memoirs are not autobiographies that tell-all, so to speak. They are slices of life; particularly a unique life as one would hope we all are experiencing. Ms. Conway braved almost unimaginable trauma, pain, tragedy, and loss in HER way - something that is sadly lacking today. Bottomline, thank goodness there are still Memoirs like this that say - THINK FOR YOURSELF!! Bravo Kathlyn, it takes incredible guts these days to do that even in the best of times!!