Ordinary Life: A Memoir of Illness (Conversations in Medicine and Society)

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Praise for Ordinary Life:xA0;x93;It reads like a novel, but Kathy Conwayx2019;s journal of three cancers is the smartest kind of self-help: it gives us permission to be wise or whiney, strong or self-indulgent, whatever it takes to get through the dark nights of chemo and dread.x201D;x97;Robert Lipsyte, columnist, New York Times and American HealthxA0;x93;Ordinary Life is a brave book . . . the kind of journey so many, many women are living throughx97;with spirit, heart and couragex97;with vision and in community.x201D;x97;Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor RooseveltxA0;Ordinary Life is a frank portrait of one womanx2019;s experience of living through three cancers, from diagnosis through treatment and on to recovery.xA0;Unlike the usual self-help book that portrays illness as a transformative experience in which the individual ultimately prevails physically, spiritually, and socially, Ordinary Life isnx2019;t afraid to inhabit and explore the nightmare world of human emotion evoked by life-threatening disease. Kathlyn Conway shows all sides of her reaction to a deadly illness. Often she is despairing, angry, lonely, terrified, and raging against her disease and its implications. Hers is a journey to the heart of darkness into which illness can take any individual. Yet Conwayx2019;s very act of courage and honesty in exposing her fear reveals hownormal such feelings are.xA0;Kathlyn Conway is a practicing psychotherapist who lives in New York City with her husband and two children.