Book of the month Beating the odds
October 1, 2009 by admin
Filed under A & E, Book of the month
Reading first-time Boulder author Carrie Host’s new memoir about living with a rare, persistent form of cancer, it‘s hard not to think of the debate about the U.S. health-care and insurance system.
“Between Me and the River: Living Beyond Cancer: A Memoir” movingly explores Host’s life after learning she had carcinoid tumors in 2003. It‘s a particularly difficult form of cancer to treat, and Host masterfully recreates her understandable emotional oscillations.
Yet Host, who is married to a successful local developer, has many tools at her disposal: top-notch insurance, enough resources to ensure that she can choose to fly to the Mayo Clinic for treatment, even a housekeeper and relatives available to care for her children while she is undergoing treatment. As difficult as her struggle is, it’s hard to imagine what it must be like to be poor or uninsured and facing the same situation.
Whatever her relatively privileged circumstances, Host has written a book that won’t merely engage the general reader, but offers gems of hope and wisdom for anyone facing a bout with cancer.
“As we go along with this disease, we learn that a pill might ease things now and then. But we know it is only a temporary fix and that the truth is that we‘re all we‘ve got. … You alone can do this. Take a deep breath and invite your solitude in, as close as possible,” she writes.
Host, who studied at Naropa University (she writes of one encounter with the late Beat poet Allen Ginsberg), is a fine, straightforward writer. She’s far from ornate but textures each page with just enough flair and wisdom to rescue the book from becoming too prosaic. But the river metaphor around which Host builds her story ebbs and flows, occasionally feeling forced.
“Between Me and the River” is an accessible, honest book that skillfully drops the reader into the author‘s dire situation. Those who love diving into deeply personal memoir will enjoy it, and her honesty will resonate for those facing a similar illness.
— By Clay Evans
