A positive, informative, and delightful guided tour through the snarls of surviving a distressing cancer diagnosis written...
A Florida psychotherapist and mystery writer recounts his prostate cancer journey.
In a straightforward, candid, and effortlessly engaging narrative, Michaels (Only in Key West, 2017) chronicles his odyssey through the traumatic ordeal of a cancer diagnosis in 2008. With little preemptive fanfare, the Key West author gets right to the heart of his memoir with the discovery that his recently tested PSA level was at its highest point ever and a classic marker for the presence of cancerous tissue. His painful, unsedated biopsy and upsetting initial diagnosis are meticulously detailed, and the remainder of his trials provides an insider’s guide to the process of detecting cancer, the methods of treatment available, and suggested alternatives to the avenues he chose for his clinical care. Michaels, “a worrier by nature,” openly shares the wide range of emotions he went through once his diagnosis was delivered and doesn’t mince words when it comes to his opinions on the detached indifference expressed by his physicians. The author’s online research about his condition produced a mixed bag of resources and data on the malady’s stigma, reputation, and the varied perceptions of the situation. Michaels’ ultimate decision to have surgery was hard won, and he shares his greatest concern involving the laparoscopic, robot-assisted procedure: irreparable nerve damage that could affect his sexual vitality. Michaels effectively supplements his cancer chronicle with an intimate narrative on his coming-out process at the age of 64, writing frankly about his 22-year childless and monogamous heterosexual relationship while harboring gay feelings that he only acted on after he and his lover parted in 2004. The author makes his story accessible and enjoyable for readers, particularly for men who are mindful of their health and appreciate Michaels’ witty and watchful approach to medicine. In striking a keen, insightful, educative, and immensely entertaining balance of humor and humanity, the author takes the dread and mystery out of a cancer diagnosis, its treatment options, and the often frustrating and unnerving hospital patient experience (including catheter maintenance and digital rectal examinations). He credits laboratory testing and early detection as the intuitive actions that “may have saved” his life. While he admits that medical procedures and techniques have improved and been revolutionized since his operation in 2008, the fear and confusion felt by patients remain unchanged. Michaels also addresses the importance of patients’ aftercare, noting that doctors in general fail to consider “the racing thoughts that keep us awake, the humiliation of incontinence, or the fear of impotence.” These, in addition to his impaired sexual wellness, were problems he contended with immediately after surgery. He writes about these issues with direct honesty and frequent infusions of humor, which, he notes, not only defuses the panicked intensity of cancer treatment, but also “affords you perspective and objectivity.”
A positive, informative, and delightful guided tour through the snarls of surviving a distressing cancer diagnosis written with comedic grace.Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9983242-4-1
Page Count: 142
Publisher: La Mancha Press
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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