Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by jacki_f
Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life: A Memoir by Delia Ephron
3.0
This is a memoir about three years in Delia Ephron's life in her early 70s. It begins with the loss of her beloved husband of 33 years, only three years after the death of her elder sister Nora from leukemia. Over the next three years, Delia will fall head over heels in love again, remarry and come close to dying from leukemia herself. A doctor tells her that she has probably 4 months to live, with her only option being a bone marrow transplant which has an extremely gruelling 12 month recovery period and only a 20% chance of being successful. She opts for the transplant, but decsribing it as gruelling is an understatement.
I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it's an easy and interesting read but - big but - I found it hard to warm to Delia and that affected my engagement. She's a very sociable person, the sort of person who within a very short time of meeting you would know your entire life story - and your parents' life stories too - and have told you most of hers. I suspect that if I actually met her I'd find her extremely warm and charming and entertaining, but on paper she comes across as spoiled and self-centered.
This is a woman who solves the problem of how to let her friends know that she has cancer by writing an OpEd for the NY Times. Who when she throws a screaming tantrum in hospital about having an MRI (the cancer treatments having affected her mental state), writes that she is sorry about what she put her friend and husband through. But doesn't mention the hospital staff. Who expects - and gets - larger hospital rooms so her husband can always stay with her and has her housekeeper keeping him company at the times that he can't be there.
Most of the reviews of this have been very positive and I suspect it comes down to how much you warm to Delia or don't. The fact that I didn't doesn't mean that you won't. But I would only classify this as being ok.
I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it's an easy and interesting read but - big but - I found it hard to warm to Delia and that affected my engagement. She's a very sociable person, the sort of person who within a very short time of meeting you would know your entire life story - and your parents' life stories too - and have told you most of hers. I suspect that if I actually met her I'd find her extremely warm and charming and entertaining, but on paper she comes across as spoiled and self-centered.
This is a woman who solves the problem of how to let her friends know that she has cancer by writing an OpEd for the NY Times. Who when she throws a screaming tantrum in hospital about having an MRI (the cancer treatments having affected her mental state), writes that she is sorry about what she put her friend and husband through. But doesn't mention the hospital staff. Who expects - and gets - larger hospital rooms so her husband can always stay with her and has her housekeeper keeping him company at the times that he can't be there.
Most of the reviews of this have been very positive and I suspect it comes down to how much you warm to Delia or don't. The fact that I didn't doesn't mean that you won't. But I would only classify this as being ok.