In the Country of Illness : Comfort and Advice for the Journey - Hardcover

Robert Lipsyte had it all: a happy marriage, two healthy children, a successful career as a big-city journalist. He also had the first signs of testicular cancer, diagnosed with the disease at age 40. So begins Lipsyte's memoir of living with cancer--and almost dying of it on several occasions. Lipsyte names this strange land of cancer, doctors, and hospitals "Malady." It is a place outside the realm of everyday existence, which Lipsyte first experienced "on a deluxe package tour"; he wouldn't check out of Malady for three weeks. This isn't a philosophical book. Lipsyte doesn't ask "Why me?" It is instead a book of learning to live with cancer and facing mortality. Lipsyte, someone who has not only lived with cancer himself but watched as cancer consumed his beloved ex-wife (the disease took its toll on his marriage as well as his health), offers solid, sensible advice.

Into the Country of Illness is an unconventional read, juxtaposing cancer and humor, or, more appropriately, what Lipsyte terms "tumor humor." Although this is an uncomfortable concept, Lipsyte regards humor as a "chemotherapy for the spirit," necessary to deal with the awfulness of this horrible disease. This is an enlightening book on the darkest of subjects.

A New York Times columnist's witty guide to that planet of pain which we must sometimes orbit or visit--the world of serious illness or, as Lipsyte calls it, Malady. Sportswriter and journalist Lipsyte's style is more powerful here than in his co-authored Idols of the Game (1995). Sports, in fact, provides a good ongoing metaphor to the gallows humor (dubbed ``tumor humor'') that makes this account of Lipsyte's testicular cancer such a good read. On one fearful team, so goes his story, are the patients, who wear funny green uniforms that tie in the back and leave their bottoms sticking out. However, players on the confident ``home team'' don the bright colors of doctors, nurses, aides, and support staff. Lipsyte is happiest with the ``jock surgeons'' who want to battle the enemy with their blades. ``None can beat [this type of surgeon] for sheer glamor,'' he insists. More cautious doctors, no matter their ``game face[s],'' are too much like quarterbacks, he grouses. Lipsyte contrives a more extended metaphor to cover the ``Cancer Couple,'' himself and his wife: They're roving a foreign land, ushered ``into the country of illness.'' Any deadly malady will provide the passport to this place, where caregivers speak a foreign language and seem to take delight in confounding the vulnerable tourist with cascades of daunting verbal gobbledygook. The ``medtechs'' screw up often; student doctors are there for the mocking. Cancer conditions may in fact exist only to offer false hope. And chemotherapy treatments are like the schoolyard bullies whom the author once feared yet outlasted. Lipsyte's insights into the effects of severe illness on one's friends and family are also sharp. No bibliography is needed; the author seems to discuss all the better books on medical topics. Unexpected views of ``mediquette,'' with charm when and where we need it most. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.