Telling Stories Their Own Way

I know two people who have dealt with cancer (okay, I know a lot more than that, but I am talking about two particular people here). They are both women, and both have dealt with, or are currently dealing with breast cancer. Both have undergone chemo. And they both have been sharing their battles with cancer in their own ways.

Kate Matthews is a cartoonist. In her LITTLE PINK BOOK OF CANCER CARTOONS, she, with insight that can only be gained from going through it herself, uses humor to deal with and deflect some of the awfulness of cancer and cancer treatment.*

       

Jacki Kane writes a blog.** It used to be about her stand-up comedy. Now it's about her run-in with cancer (who her daughter named Weird Cancer Guy). She fuses comedy, gratitude and the reality of cancer and cancer treatment into her blog posts, also including (at least!) Three Positives. (I love the Three Positives idea...I've been trying to incorporate Three Positives into my own life.)

Both of them share their harrowing experiences with cancer and cancer treatment (the hair loss! pain! chemo! surgery! medications! exhaustion!) with humor and insight. And both of their works are worth reading, whether you're dealing with cancer or not.

Not only am I glad to share in their journeys even in the most tangential of ways, I love seeing how each of them seems to have found a way that works for them to express themselves.

*Read my full blog post about Kate's book here:
http://notthenewyorktimesbookreview.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-little-pink-book-of-mostly-cancer.html

**And go to Jacki's blog here:
http://jackikane.com/blog/

Clicking on the book cover will take you to Amazon's page for the book. Please copy and paste the links to read more about Kate and Jacki and their work, which goes beyond addressing cancer. Thanks for stopping by!

The Little Pink Book of (mostly) Cancer Cartoons

I recently received THE LITTLE PINK BOOK OF (MOSTLY) CANCER CARTOONS from the author, Kate Matthews.

A cancer survivor herself, Matthews used humor to cope with her disease, figuring that humor, anything that gives a cancer patient something to laugh about, matters a lot.

I think she's right. Because I'm not a cancer patient or survivor myself, I felt a bit as though I was looking in on cancer from the outside. While I am familiar with some of the perils wrought by cancer and cancer treatment (nausea, hair loss, pain, mastectomy, reconstruction, etc.), I have not lived through it. Kate has.

Her cartoons express the hardships and trials and pain and fear of cancer, yet the cartoons themselves, in color with simple lines (and I really liked them in color), don't lessen the emotions and struggles they convey. They lighten them. Give them voice. Humor. And, I think, release.

Some of the cartoons aren't cancer specific, one where a wife tells her husband that she won't tell him about her day, if he won't tell her about his. Another one that I really liked showed four different people and their responses to hearing the news about cancer from their friend. Denying it, cutting, topping it with a worse story and the un-comforting. We've all had people respond like this when sharing difficult news!

I've looked at the book several times, reading and rereading the cartoons. I like it more each time I read it.

Several months ago, I had a young woman come into the bookstore asking for something funny about cancer. Her mother had cancer and she was trying to find something that would help her see a little humor in her cancer. At that time I didn't have anything to recommend. Now I do!

The book is available in several different versions, digitally for the Kindle (not for the Nook at this time), a black and white paper version and a color paper version
You can get the book through Kate's facebook page for the book: www.facebook.com/cancercartoons

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