Stay of execution;: A sort of memoir [Hardcover]

Stewart Alsop (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Lippincott; 1st edition (1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1111332037
• ISBN-13: 978-1111332037
• ASIN: B0006C98U0
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,831,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stay of Execution. A Sort of Memoir, December 30, 2007

By 

J. H. Enright - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

I was a reader and admirer of Stewart Alsop's column in Newsweek in the seventies, and I was saddened to hear he was fatally sick with leukemia. Consequently, I read his account of his bout with cancer as soon as it came out in 1974.
I have just reread this book. I strongly recommend it, not only for its high readability and the intrinsic interest of Alsop's life and work, but mainly because of its unique perspective: that of a man who knows himself to be dying - though, ironically, no one seems to be sure what, exactly, he is dying of. Alsop is unusually articulate in relating his experience. Reading his book, this reader gets a glimpse of what the process of dying might actually feel like.
Alsop never stoops to a maudlin sentimentalism. Instead, he aims for a kind of psychological distance throughout, and, essentially, he succeeds. I wish someone had written an epilogue to this book; since when it ends, you are left wondering about when and how death finally caught up with him. I now know that it happened in May 1974.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Facing death is the topic, November 9, 2002

By 

Mary M. Horwitz (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stay of execution;: A sort of memoir (Hardcover)

I picked out this book at random one evening from my husband's "library". A lovely book describing one man's experience in the face of a terminal illness, which actually ended up being a wrong diagnosis.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully disjointed reading for patients, October 15, 2001

By 

Randy H. Farb (Flint, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stay of execution;: A sort of memoir (Hardcover)

I read this book while waiting for surgery, and it is extremely well-written for just such an audience. The author is related to many famous politicians, including the Roosevelts and the Kennedys, and shares his memories of the rich and famous while
waiting to join his ancestors. Far from being gloomy and depressing, this book is a tonic.