One Hundred Autobiographies, by David Lehman

There are many personal stories of cancer. Many self-help stories and many memoirs. And yes, there are even cancer poems.

But now we have a book that is both a cancer story and a work of literature that happens to be a memoir by a poet. We would not wish cancer on anyone, not even—as we say—our worst enemy, but now some gratitude because cancer has given us a gift in the new book:

“One Hundred Autobiographies” by poet and scholar, David Lehman.

It is true that for a writer everything is material, and that for a writer everything is examined through the lens of language, so of course from his first suspicions Lehman began to craft a story—the real and awful story --of his bladder cancer.

The “One Hundred Autobiographies” is one hundred short vignettes detailing and documenting diagnosis, treatment and into the start of recovery. 

While we, here is CancerLand,  may know some things about cancer, and some things about bladder cancer, Lehman takes us to new places only a poet can take us.

He brings popular culture into the rooms, (look there--Keith Richards and Patti Hanson--who knew?) and he also allows intellectual folk like Edward Said and Lionel Trilling to join in. 

But how else would a poet and scholar do cancer?

Lehman shows us his pain and fear, and he shows us his love, and his loving wife, Stacey who documents what Lehman cannot see or sense when he is under the spell of anesthesia and the recovery room.

But here’s the thing about this cancer book: You are also going to laugh when you least expect it, and you are going to scribble in the margins (hence, buy your own copy) all the quotes you want to save and the books you’ll want to put on your library list (“The End of the Affair” by Graham Greene was first on mine.)

Lehman’s book is smart and sharp, with a touch of literary celebrity, and beautiful language. And something else: You don’t even have to have cancer to be enthralled by this book.


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David Lehman is the author of: Poems in the Manner of...and Sinatra's Century: One Hundred Notes on the Man and His World. Lehman is the editor of The Oxford Book of American  Poetry and series editor of The Best American Poetry. He teaches in the graduate writing program of the New School in New York City.

Reading & Writing Cancer

You would expect Susan Gubar to be a good writer. She is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of English at Indiana University. So yes, an English teacher should know how to compose a compelling lead, and how to structure sentences, and support and illustrate an argument.

But Gubar’s gift to us in CancerLand is that she brings her writer’s gift to some of the most unspeakable parts of cancer. 

Gubar was the author of seventeen academic books, but her first book about cancer was: Memoir of a Debulked Woman: Enduring Ovarian Cancer.

In that book she made us care enough about her—and other women--to stay page after page through descriptions of surgery, depression, medical negotiation and treatment mishaps. We cared about her and we learned exactly what treatment for ovarian cancer looks like.

We also got to read her New York Times “Living With Cancer” column—where she brought practical info, education and the unanswerable questions too. Those columns helped patients, caregivers and medical specialists. Always of service, and always good writing.

And now, a lasting and last gift, in her last book: Reading & Writing Cancer-she teaches us to fish (and write) by showing how literature about illness and cancer can give us perspective and language, and also, crucially, she invites both the experienced writer and the “Oh, never me” writer to begin writing about our own cancer experiences as a way to heal.

The healing may be of the physical cancer, or of the acceptance of a terrible diagnosis, or of the grief, or over the existential reality of a body’s limitations. 

This story book and writing manual and teachers tool is a final gift, and our challenge to take up the pen that Gubar has laid down, as she encourages us to keep reading and writing about cancer.

Why Write About Cancer?

I have been asked many times why I write about cancer, and I have told the story of this blog—about how frustrated I was when no one would talk to me or my husband about sex while facing cancer.

And I write a lot: I write the blog, “Women in Recovery”, and the books: “Looking for Signs” (A collection of essays) and “Out of the Woods” (about women in Twelve-step recovery), and

recently, “Never Leave Your Dead” (about military trauma and family trauma and redemption).
And I write newspaper columns for the Albany Times Union and many other papers...

But why write at all? Maybe this quote from James Baldwin says just enough about why:

“You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can’t, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world…The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter it, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.”   (James Baldwin)

The Literature of Caregiving: "Home" by Marilynne Robinson

I have been a caregiver for more than 30 years, and for the past ten years I have been coaching family caregivers. A couple of years ago I created a class called “Caregiving 101” to reach family caregivers in community centers, faith communities, and in workplaces.

What I’ve learned is that one of the biggest supports for a caregiver is hearing about how other people cope in their caregiving. We can learn from the good and the bad, from the “Do” and the “Don’t”, examples of how other people approached, struggled and survived their caregiving role.

In caregiving classes and support groups we hear poignant stories directly from current caregivers. But there is another way to share in these caregiving stories and that is from reading literature.

In the midst of my own caregiving I found myself leaning into the experiences of poets, novelists and those who write literary nonfiction, (essays and memoir as opposed to self-help books). Today my caregiving bookshelves have an equal number of advice books and works of literature—all guides to me on the practices, methods, strategies, and emotions of caregiving.

A few years ago I began teaching a class—for caregivers and for writers—called “The Literature of Caregiving.” Today, here at “Love in the Time of Cancer,” I am starting a new series on the literature of caregiving. Once a month, or maybe more often, I’ll introduce a novel, story or poem that offers a perspective on caregiving.

I hope you’ll enjoy these voices and that they will be helpful to you.

In caregiving literature we are often talking about pain, suffering, grief, or family dynamics, which we all know, complicate the day-to-day stress of caregiving.  Some works of literature in the caregiving genre can also be classified also as works of “narrative theology”—where there are underlying questions of meaning,  “What does all this mean in a bigger sense?” and “What wisdom do these stories offer about how I should live my life?”

I’ve chosen Marilynne Robinson--one of America’s great modern authors to lead this new series. Her books land on the best-seller list with each publishing, and they have the wonderful dual quality of holding their own as great page-turning fiction as well as having deep, deeper and deepest layers should you want that kind of read as well.

Maybe you recall some of her books, which were published in this order:

“Housekeeping”—which was also a wonderful movie, then “Gilead”—which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize, then “Home” in 2008 and most recently, “Lila”. All of Robinson’s stories are set in Iowa—where Robinson lives. And each of her books centers on the joys, sorrows and struggles of one or more family caregivers.

In “Home” (2008) Robinson gives us Glory Boughton, age 38, who has returned to Iowa to care for her dying father. Glory has her own struggles that her father isn’t aware of. Glory’s brother Jack—gone 20 years—arrives home as well but not to help out but rather because, as we slowly learn, Jack needs a lot of tender care as well. Critics have called Jack Boughton one of the “greatest characters in recent American literature.”

Robinson’s writing and story telling is extraordinary. She uses a kind of page-turning prose that can seem so simple until you realize pages later that she has delivered complicated relationships and even more complicated emotions to us so gracefully.

Glory and Jack’s father is a retired minister so there is a family language of faith that both Jack and Glory wrestle with as they wrestle with each other. While the theology belongs to their pastor father, Glory is being tested in every way: emotionally, financially, physically and theologically.

Robinson’s other books all have caregivers as lead characters: an eccentric aunt in “Housekeeping”, a husband and wife in “Gilead” and a surprising friend in 2014's “Lila”.

While these stories are serious and important Robinson’s skill is also in making them enticing page-turners, so even the most tired caregiver will enjoy keeping Robinson on the bedside table, or in the bag that goes to and from appointments. 

I’ll return in a few weeks with another entry into our new canon: The Literature of Caregiving. I’d love to have your feedback and your suggestions too. This can be our virtual book group or we’ll be caregiving friends sharing a great read.

Writing Aids Cancer Recovery

In my cancer and caregiver classes we do a lot of writing. It's not news that writing is a comfort and an anchor but now we have additional evidence that writing about one's cancer experience can effectively reduce pain, fear and trauma.

An article in the journal Health Psychology reports that ASian American woman dealing with breast cancer experienced better recoveries when they were introduced to the practice of "emotional writing."
Qian Lu, director of the Culture and Health Research Center says that the research was focused on specifically writing about the traumatic aspects of the cancer experience.

“Cancer patients, like war veterans in Iraq, can experience post-traumatic stress symptoms. Many times when cancer patients get diagnosed, they face lots of emotional trauma. There’s a sense of loss, depression, anxiety about going into treatment and how they are going to face the future,” said Lu.

While this particular study focused on breast cancer I can easily imagine related benefits for using emotional writing with all cancer patients--and of course with cancer caregivers as well. The hard part, of course, is allowing yourself time--and permission--to write daily but knowing that it is having a health benefit may allow patient and caregiver that permission for toward the healing benfits of writing.

Here is a link to the full article. Take a look and share with others in your CancerLand.

http://psychcentral.com/news/2014/08/04/breast-cancer-survivors-benefit-from-expressive-writing/73195.html

PS. I am always available to lead a class on Writing for Caregivers or Caregiving 101 for your group or organization.

The Write Treatment

In this month’s Poets & Writers Magazine there is a terrific article by the novelist Emily Rubin about writing and cancer. Rubin is the author of the novel, “Stalina” (Mariner Books, 2011) and she has also published many of her short stories in Confrontation and The red Rock Review.

In the P&W Magazine Rubin writes about her experience with cancer and her decision after her own treatment had ended to give back to her cancer community by offering writing workshops at Beth Israel Medical Center in new York City.

She started small, supported by the hospitals social work department, and developed a simple curriculum that allows patients and their cancer caregivers to attend and do writing practice. Rubin writes that, “I encourage participants to write about anything they choose and I hope the workshop can be a place to take a moment away from waiting rooms and procedures.”

Participants in the Beth Israel writing workshop work on fiction, poetry, biography or fantasy stories.

Writing and art are curative and they can also be –or facilitate—spiritual practices.