The Cancer Monologue Project is a collection of 30
monologues written and presented by survivors of cancer and in a few cases by
their close kin. Two of them are about one person, written by the person and
his spouse. In the space of a few pages, each account took me deep into the
psyche of the sufferer. I got a close-up view of the problem. The accounts are
totally frank, since the participants in this project have chosen this way to
face with the issue themselves. I came across all shades of human emotion.
Fear, denial, grief, shock, anger, resignation, whatever I could think of. A
few samples:

"if I was going leave this world with any
respect at all, I had to abandon my peace with death and determine I was going
to live. That’s when it got hard." – Cancer and other travels – Deborah
Milton Spaulding

"Ruth and I were at the hospital, chatting and
waiting for me to go to surgery, when suddenly we both felt a peaceful presence
move through the room. We looked at the clock. It was eight a.m. From that point
on, I had no doubt that I was being cared for." (A group of supporting
friends prayed for her at that time – reviewer). – Leaving, Deborah Gunderman

"I am sick of hearing that cancer is
transformational. I liked my life just fine before. It didn’t need to be
transformed. I was progressing on my journey just fine!" – Floating in the
river – Patsy Sears

" Having hardly any other choices, I have
slowly learned how to deal with cancer and death as best as I could. … In
practice, some days are a hell of a lot better than others." – It is a
family thing – David DeVary

"This horrible disease has brought me a real
gift of knowing, a calmness, a better sense of myself as who I am, the real me,
extra weight, scars, tattoos and all." – Waiting to get a life – Alice
Kitselman

"Like Moon, I prefer alternative healing
methods, but now I was scared." –

Surprises – Pelican Lee

Though there are similarities in some accounts, each
was sufficiently different to hold my interest. Some have been helped by their
faith in a higher power, others by their determination to live, others by their
support groups in the form of family and friends. Most of them chose what the
modern medicine has to offer, surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Only a few
chose to go a different way and tried alternative therapies. A few combined
both. Finally it all boils down to the individual’s choice. Some of them looked
upon the whole experience as a lesson to be absorbed.

I noticed that 26 out of the thirty monologues are
written by women!  Statistically highly
significant!  Why so few men chose to
write? Are they too shy to open themselves? Or is the gender ratio of cancer
victims so highly skewed? I would tend to accept the first explanation.

The theatrical training and experience of the
editors has helped bring out a good collection of mostly first person accounts,
that educate, and enlighten us. My interest was held through out the book. It
did not grip me like an un-put-down-able thriller but it certainly was a very
interesting reading exercise. One’s own mental background and attitude to
illness, especially cancer will no doubt condition the response.

The book has one or two typos. One example: Page
57-"could hospital" in place of "hospital could."  On pages 130 and 131, a paragraph got
repeated, with slight change of the sentence order.

All in all, a good book and a good experiment. A
monologue by Pamela Thomson (about her husband’s fight with cancer) would have
increased the value.

© 2003 S. V. Swamy

S. V. Swamy,
India.

Categories: Memoirs