A cleareyed, warmhearted and extraordinarily useful guide.
A couple recounts their battle with prostate cancer and its aftermath in this harrowing but hopeful self-helper.
Rick Redner, a 58-year-old medical social worker and entrepreneur, was devastated by a diagnosis of prostate cancer. Thankfully, his prostate was removed before the tumor spread. The worst part lay before him, however, in the yearslong struggle to recover from the surgery’s effects. The most humiliating was his loss of bladder control, which entailed spending hundreds of dollars a month on adult diapers—and so many mortifying accidents in public that he turned into a virtual recluse. The most agonizing effect was his erectile dysfunction, which further undermined his sense of manhood and led to an epic “penile rehabilitation” program that progressed from vacuum pumps to horrific injections. Redner’s ordeal threatened his life and his marriage, but it left him with a wealth of advice for prostate cancer patients, along with deeper insights into the importance of family, community and faith. His primer brims with practical tips, from how much pain to expect during medical procedures—and how to prod doctors into alleviating it—to what kind of pants best hide urine stains. But he also tells how he wrestled with depression and self-loathing, and he urges men not to withdraw but to adjust to their frailties and reach out to others, especially to their spouses. Redner’s wife, Brenda, who plays a large role in his narrative, supplies some prayerful chapters from her own perspective. Redner recounts with excruciating candor some of the most intimate physical and psychic wounds people can sustain. At the same time, he lays out in straightforward, often funny prose a can-do strategy for surmounting prostate cancer, one that provides concrete steps to anticipate and manage difficulties. Cancer sufferers and their loved ones will find here a well-informed and reassuring road map for the difficult journey ahead.
A cleareyed, warmhearted and extraordinarily useful guide.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2013
ISBN: 978-1449779627
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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