Pretty Is What Changes: Impossible Choices, The Breast Cancer Gene, and How I Defied My Destiny [Hardcover]

Jessica Queller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

A timely, affecting memoir from the front lines of medical science: When genetics can predict how we may die, how then do we decide how to live?

Eleven months after her mother succumbs to cancer, Jessica Queller has herself tested for the BRCA “breast cancer” gene mutation. The results come back positive, putting her at a terrifyingly elevated risk of developing breast cancer before the age of fifty and ovarian cancer in her lifetime. Thirty-four, unattached, and yearning for marriage and a family of her own, Queller faces an agonizing choice: a lifetime of vigilant screenings and a commitment to fight the disease when caught, or its radical alternative—a prophylactic double mastectomy that would effectively restore life to her, even as it would challenge her most closely held beliefs about body image, identity, and sexuality.

Superbly informed and armed with surprising wit and style, Queller takes us on an odyssey from the frontiers of science to the private interiors of a woman’s life. Pretty Is What Changes is an absorbing account of how she reaches her courageous decision and its physical, emotional, and philosophical consequences. It is also an incredibly moving story of what we inherit from our parents and how we fashion it into the stuff of our own lives, of mothers and daughters and sisters, and of the sisterhood that forms when women are united in battle against a common enemy.

Without flinching, Jessica Queller answers a question we may one day face for ourselves: If genes can map our fates and their dark knowledge is offered to us, will we willingly trade innocence for the information that could save our lives?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

TV writer Queller (The Gilmore Girls) was 31, single and healthy when her mother succumbed to ovarian cancer at the age of 58, having battled breast cancer six years earlier. Queller chronicles her mother's long and anguished struggle in vivid detail. After her mother's death, at the suggestion of an acquaintance, Queller opted to discover whether she carries the breast cancer gene; indeed, she tested positive for the BRCA-1 gene mutation, which gave her an 87% chance of breast cancer before age 50 and a 44% chance of ovarian cancer in her lifetime. With this knowledge in hand, Queller began the journey toward her pivotal choice: a prophylactic double mastectomy at age 35. Along the way she traveled between the West Coast and New York City, seeking medical opinions, information and unsuccessfully—but not for lack of trying—a man she can love who will father her children before she follows up with voluntary surgery to remove her ovaries. This Hollywood writer's story is seamless and gripping; readers will be rooting for Queller and her heroic decision to confront her genetic destiny. (Apr.)
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Review

“By turns inspiring, sorrowful and profoundly moving. Queller’s sense of humor and grace transform the most harrowing of situations into a riveting and heartfelt memoir.” –Kirkus Reviews

“Seamless and gripping. Readers will be rooting for Queller and her heroic decision to confront her genetic destiny.” –Publishers Weekly

“Jessica Queller gives us a warm, chilling, unflinching look at her personal journey of survival with style. The ending will surprise you. Her prescience is astounding. Her courage is inspirational. Brava Jessica!” – Marisa Acocella Marchetto, author of Cancer Vixen

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Spiegel & Grau; 1 edition (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385520409
• ISBN-13: 978-0385520409
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #961,134 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Redefining the Pretty Gene, April 1, 2008

By 

A. Van Buren (NY, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pretty Is What Changes: Impossible Choices, The Breast Cancer Gene, and How I Defied My Destiny (Hardcover)

Focusing on three generations of women in her family, Jessica Queller lays the groundwork early on, letting us know she comes from a fiercely independent line of women, but one that still defines pretty by traditional means. From her actress-grandmother to her fashion designer-mother, and herself, a television writer (at the time, on the show "Gilmore Girls" and currently on "Gossip Girl), Queller grapples with the difficulties of finding her place in this female dynamic.

When her mother dies from ovarian cancer however, Jessica turns her contemporary eye on taking the BRCA test (the test for the breast cancer gene). After discovering she tests positive for the gene, Queller's inherent and inherited beauty is at risk as she weighs the options on how to proceed and insure her health and longevity for a beautiful life. The reader is taken into her mind as she meets survivors, pre-vivors and others touched by the disease and ultimately, makes a decision to redefine the genes and ideals we inherit.

While this book does tackle deep topics and questions, Queller strikes a balance by setting it against the starry backdrop of the television world and the history of her unique and lovably idiosyncratic family. Readers of any level and gender will appreciate her writing and hopefully, walk away with their own picture of the ever-changing face of beauty.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Jessica Queller's "Eye Arranges Is Beautiful", April 1, 2008

By 

Roni W. Elson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pretty Is What Changes: Impossible Choices, The Breast Cancer Gene, and How I Defied My Destiny (Hardcover)

I was hooked from the epigraph quoting Stephen Sondheim:
"Pretty isn't beautiful, mother. Pretty is what changes. What the eye arranges is beautiful."

This book, ostensibly about the breast cancer gene, is really, remarkably, about life, liberty in the confounding pursuit of medical truth, cancer, art, creativity, Hollywood, and the most compelling mother/daughter coming of age story I have ever read.

Upon reading "Pretty Is What Changes," I immediately signed up for gene testing, googled the author, bought a ticket for a revival of "Sunday in the Park with George," went to see Seurat at the Modern, and had serious talks and hugs with my daughters about the gene, my own artist mother, their limitless potential for success, and my love for them. Whew!

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest, gripping, beautifully told memoir, April 1, 2008

By 

Cecilia Gray (Pasadena, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pretty Is What Changes: Impossible Choices, The Breast Cancer Gene, and How I Defied My Destiny (Hardcover)

I loved this book. Jessica Queller is a talented writer with a gripping story, one she tells with honesty and without sentiment. With a fascinating sweep through the author's family history, around the brave new world of DNA fortune-telling, and into her own personal relationships and how they are affected by the explosive power of the BRCA gene, her style is both intimate and intelligent.

This is not a dark and somber story. Queller is able to maintain a sense of humor about herself while getting to the scary nub of it all - the life-and-death decisions, the thorny issues of fate and afterlife - and ends the book on a note of inspired hope. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a great read. It is not necessarily, even, a cancer book. It is a book about the triumph of will, passion, and self-determination.