From Publishers Weekly
An honest, chilling tale of a family dealing with chronic illness, this memoir's subject is Cariou's sister, Pam, who at the age of four was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis, a terminal disease of the lungs and pancreas marked by severe coughing and malnutrition; unable to pronounce her condition, young Pam dubs it instead "Sixtyfive Roses." What follows is no heartwarming tearjerker; early on, Cariou cagily warns that "the world of chronic-terminal illness is, in many ways, akin to the world of war." Written to fulfill a deathbed promise Cariou made to write "our" story, and a promise to her mother to tell the truth, the result frequently is not pretty. Initially given no more than six years to live, Pam was among the first wave of Cystics to reach adulthood (she died at 25), but her life is a daily struggle, crammed with treatments, hospitalizations, false starts and faint hope, setbacks and unfulfilled dreams. Cariou keeps readers distanced with an unemotional account that invites more wary ambivalence than sympathy, a risky technique that may put off some readers, but communicates well the complicated feelings that long-term illness can breed in families.
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Review
Read this book: your life will never be the same. --
Storycircle Book Review, December 13, 2007Globe and Mail Best 100 Books of 2006
"Cariou is a deft emotional cartographer...Sixtyfive Roses is a love letter, a thank-you note, a defence, a plea, a setting straight, a reaching out. " - Paula Todd, Globe and Mail book review -- Globe and Mail, November 18th, 2006
Sixty-Five Roses is truly a heart-wrenching, yet beautiful account of two sister's love for one another as one sister, Pam, battles daily for her life with cystic fibrosis. This memoir cast an even wider net of love encompassing and making transparent the lives of the entire family on this journey about love, understanding, illness, heartaches, and accomplishments. A lifetime story that leaves no emotion in a safe harbor. This memoir is told with complete honesty and with a soft conscience. Get ready to be inspired. -- Web Newsletter of the National Association of Babyboomer Women, 2007
Sixtyfive Roses: A Sister's Memoir by Heather Summerhayes Cariou is one of the most moving memoirs I have ever read. Every page holds your interest and leaves you wanting to never stop reading. This book also reads smoothly like a novel, as you care about the characters and the story is fascinating from beginning to end. Heather write so lovingly of her sister Pam, who suffers from cystic fibrosis--together they and the entire family struggle and learn and fight and love and live and laugh and triumph in so many ways. What a journey. You will be happy to have gone with them. -- Village Book Staff Pick, January 15, 2008
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