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240 reviews for:
Do ostatnich dni. Zapis życia, choroby i wszystkiego, co przychodzi później
Julie Yip-Williams
3.99 AVERAGE
240 reviews for:
Do ostatnich dni. Zapis życia, choroby i wszystkiego, co przychodzi później
Julie Yip-Williams
3.99 AVERAGE
ulie Yip-Williams captivated my heart in The Unwinding of the Miracle.
If you haven’t heard of this one, it is the memoir of her beautiful life — from immigrating to the US from Vietnam (after narrowly escaping euthanasia at the hands of her grandmother because she was born blind) to her stage 4 cancer diagnosis at 37 and the years that followed.
I will never, ever tire of talented writers sharing their wisdom and raw feelings when confronted with tragedy. My favorite part was that she lays it all out there: the unpleasant symptoms and side effects, her bouts of rage, and her honest feelings about her husband re-marrying.
I felt like her cheerleader and her friend as she wrestled with life and death and parenting and love.
In short, I highly, highly recommend. I also highly, highly recommend that if you wear mascara, you make it waterproof when reading this one.
If you haven’t heard of this one, it is the memoir of her beautiful life — from immigrating to the US from Vietnam (after narrowly escaping euthanasia at the hands of her grandmother because she was born blind) to her stage 4 cancer diagnosis at 37 and the years that followed.
I will never, ever tire of talented writers sharing their wisdom and raw feelings when confronted with tragedy. My favorite part was that she lays it all out there: the unpleasant symptoms and side effects, her bouts of rage, and her honest feelings about her husband re-marrying.
I felt like her cheerleader and her friend as she wrestled with life and death and parenting and love.
In short, I highly, highly recommend. I also highly, highly recommend that if you wear mascara, you make it waterproof when reading this one.
This book reminded me a lot of When Breath Becomes Air, which is unsurprising given they are both written by authors with terminal cancer diagnoses and published posthumously. What is surprising is how i failed to connect with this book when i did with When Breath Becomes Air. By all accounts, i should have, given the author and i both have law degrees, and two young daughters. I think perhaps i would have connected more had a heavier hand been applied to the editing, it jumps around a lot, with diagnosis not even being dealt with first up. The letters to her daughters and husband could have been grouped together for greater impact, too. I understand appealing to the reader was not the point of the book, but rather as a record for her family, but it is intended for publication to the wider world, after all.
I did deeply appreciate the honesty that Julie wrote with though, and her sharing of her journey is exceptionally generous. My favourite passage which exemplifies this is as follows:
'I vowed when i started writing my way through this calamity that I would endeavor to be honest about who i am and what it is for me to battle cancer, that i would strive against my very human egoist tendencies to prop up some persona of myself as perpetually inspiring, strong, or wise. Why was this so important to me? In part, because if this writing were to become the principal means by which my children would come to know my innermost thoughts and feelings after my death, I wanted them to see my real self, a self that, in addition to experiencing many moments of joy, gratitude, and insight, was often tormented by fear, anger, hurt, despair, and darkness. I also made that promise because i disliked tremendously those bloggers who always presented in the face of a life-threatening illness images of pumped fists and unending positivity and determination. To me, such portrayals were disingenuous, an insult to the intelligence of readers, and above all, disorienting and potentially harmful for those like myself who were newly diagnosed and felt more darkness than light. I wanted to detail and explore that darkness, to let others out there who i knew experienced a similar desolation and lonely darkness know that they were not and are not alone. There is a natural, intuitive fear of darkness; people who are gripped by it are ashamed to speak of it, while those who are free of it for however long wish to run from it as if it were a contagious plague. If the cost of my brutal honesty about my darkness is a highly unflattering picture of me that repels, so be it.'
Vale, Julie Yip-Williams.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.
I did deeply appreciate the honesty that Julie wrote with though, and her sharing of her journey is exceptionally generous. My favourite passage which exemplifies this is as follows:
'I vowed when i started writing my way through this calamity that I would endeavor to be honest about who i am and what it is for me to battle cancer, that i would strive against my very human egoist tendencies to prop up some persona of myself as perpetually inspiring, strong, or wise. Why was this so important to me? In part, because if this writing were to become the principal means by which my children would come to know my innermost thoughts and feelings after my death, I wanted them to see my real self, a self that, in addition to experiencing many moments of joy, gratitude, and insight, was often tormented by fear, anger, hurt, despair, and darkness. I also made that promise because i disliked tremendously those bloggers who always presented in the face of a life-threatening illness images of pumped fists and unending positivity and determination. To me, such portrayals were disingenuous, an insult to the intelligence of readers, and above all, disorienting and potentially harmful for those like myself who were newly diagnosed and felt more darkness than light. I wanted to detail and explore that darkness, to let others out there who i knew experienced a similar desolation and lonely darkness know that they were not and are not alone. There is a natural, intuitive fear of darkness; people who are gripped by it are ashamed to speak of it, while those who are free of it for however long wish to run from it as if it were a contagious plague. If the cost of my brutal honesty about my darkness is a highly unflattering picture of me that repels, so be it.'
Vale, Julie Yip-Williams.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.
This is a heartbreaking read, one that I had to read over the course of several month, because of its subject matter and raw emotion. The writing is so eloquent. Yip-Williams had an amazing journey and remarkable life, as well as incredible insight into her own death.
I have to confess that I was scared to read this. I have a huge cancer-phobia. I think it’s a pretty common fear in a world where a cancer diagnosis has become a fairly common occurrence. I was worried that reading this book would make me more paranoid, more fearful. It didn’t.
•
A beautifully written memoir, Yip-Williams shares her journey with us from her diagnosis of Stage IV colon cancer in 2013 to her death in 2018. She is committed to honesty and pulls no punches. She tells of her hope and then her resignation. She exudes love for her friends, family, food, travel, and life in general. She reveals her private jealousy and at times, even hatred, for mamas who are fortunate enough to watch their babies grow up.
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There’s no denying that this book will remind many of us to make that checkup appointment, to pay attention to our bodies and what they may be telling us. However, this book didn’t read as a cautionary tale. To me, it was more of an expression of gratitude. Julie Yip-Williams loved life so much and she wanted all of us to do the same. A beautiful work from an incredible talent, I highly recommend this one.
•
A beautifully written memoir, Yip-Williams shares her journey with us from her diagnosis of Stage IV colon cancer in 2013 to her death in 2018. She is committed to honesty and pulls no punches. She tells of her hope and then her resignation. She exudes love for her friends, family, food, travel, and life in general. She reveals her private jealousy and at times, even hatred, for mamas who are fortunate enough to watch their babies grow up.
•
There’s no denying that this book will remind many of us to make that checkup appointment, to pay attention to our bodies and what they may be telling us. However, this book didn’t read as a cautionary tale. To me, it was more of an expression of gratitude. Julie Yip-Williams loved life so much and she wanted all of us to do the same. A beautiful work from an incredible talent, I highly recommend this one.
Raw, unfiltered, and beautiful memoir. Very thought provoking. 4 stars due to the repetitive nature of certain elements (mention of solo traveling a million times, fixation on SS wife, hate) and total lack of acknowledgement of her incredible privilege - which was sometimes cringeworthy.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
A very honest look at dying from cancer. This book doesn’t shy away from the crappy parts and the rage. There are moments of profound wisdom and other times it went on too long.
sad
medium-paced