By
– December 2, 2011
The Adventures of Cancer Bitch is, to me, a shocking and disturbing title. Why use a pejorative for women in the title of a book, especially since Wisenberg says that she was never a “bitch” during her surgery and chemotherapy? Wisenberg’s answer is not complex. “Cancer Bitch” is how she characterizes herself on her blog. “Cancer Vixen” and “Cancer Babe” were ruled out. No doubt, the appellation does get your attention. It conveys her feistiness, sardonic sense of humor, fighter attitude, and willingness to speak the truth as she sees it.
Wisenberg’s book is the near-daily journal of her one year’s experiences from the diagnosis of breast cancer through treatment (chemotherapy, radiation, and mastectomy) and her medical updates after that. The book has an important message: The diagnosis of cancer is not a death sentence. Jewish women need to take heed since there appears to be a higher incidence of breast cancer and ovarian cancer among Ashkenazi Jewish women.
This book will especially appeal to people who have experienced cancer firsthand as patients, family members, or friends.
Among S. L. Wisenberg’s publications are the books The Sweetheart is In and Holocaust Girls: History, Memory, and Other Obsessions. She is the co-director of Northwestern University’s MA/MFA creative writing program. Her blog, Cancer Bitch can be read at http://cancerbitch. blogspot.com/. Notes, updates.
Wisenberg’s book is the near-daily journal of her one year’s experiences from the diagnosis of breast cancer through treatment (chemotherapy, radiation, and mastectomy) and her medical updates after that. The book has an important message: The diagnosis of cancer is not a death sentence. Jewish women need to take heed since there appears to be a higher incidence of breast cancer and ovarian cancer among Ashkenazi Jewish women.
This book will especially appeal to people who have experienced cancer firsthand as patients, family members, or friends.
Among S. L. Wisenberg’s publications are the books The Sweetheart is In and Holocaust Girls: History, Memory, and Other Obsessions. She is the co-director of Northwestern University’s MA/MFA creative writing program. Her blog, Cancer Bitch can be read at http://cancerbitch. blogspot.com/. Notes, updates.
Carol Poll, Ph.D., is the retired Chair of the Social Sciences Department and Professor of Sociology at the Fashion Institute of Technology of the State University of New York. Her areas of interest include the sociology of race and ethnic relations, the sociology of marriage, family and gender roles and the sociology of Jews.
