Reviews - The Cancer Journals

The Cancer Journals by Tracy K. Smith, Audre Lorde

534 reviews for:

As anything else, Lorde is ethereal. The way she passionately and unapologetically speaks her truth to power gives me strength like few other things in life. Especially in the face of harrowing circumstances such as breast cancer. I could read all of Lorde's work ten times over.

iambic's review against another edition

“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. That the speaking profits me, beyond any other effect. I am standing here as a black lesbian poet, and the meaning of all that waits upon the fact that I am still alive, and might not have been.”

sinisterbeard's review

2.0

informative slow-paced

I feel bad for not liking this, it's a very worthy subject and Audre Lorde is important; I think effectively I felt miss-sold: this is not Audre Lorde's cancer journals - there are *very* brief extracts from her journals which are the highlights of the book, but the majority is after the fact philosophising on the subject with the journals as a vague jumping off point, like a scientific write up of more interesting field notes with all the emotion excised. The language is also very flowery and, possibly the irony poisoning speaking, unbearably earnest.

nicole_reads_everything's review against another edition

4.0

Short read told in three parts with Audre discussing her experiences with her cancer diagnosis and mastectomy. Still (sadly) extremely relevant despite being written decades ago.

annawim's review against another edition

5.0

Really helped me understand my aunt's recent cancer journey. Liked the tie to malignancy of our society at the end. Amazing that it was narrated by Lorde’s daughter.