Bodies of Truth: Personal Narratives on Illness, Disability, and Medicine
"Medicine still contains an oral tradition, passed down in stories: the stories patients tell us, the ones we tell them, and the ones we tell ourselves," writes contributor Madaline Harrison. Bodies of Truth continues this tradition through a variety of narrative approaches by writers representing all facets of health care. And, since all of us have been or will be touched by illness or disability--our own or that of a loved one--at some point in our lives, any reader of this anthology can relate to the challenges, frustrations, and pain--both physical and emotional--that the contributors have experienced.
Bodies of Truth offers perspectives on a wide array of issues, from food allergies, cancer, and neurology to mental health, autoimmune disorders, and therapeutic music. These experiences are recounted by patients, nurses, doctors, parents, children, caregivers, and others who attempt to articulate the intangible human and emotional factors that surround life when it intersects with the medical field.
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"Bodies of Truth takes us to a world of miraculous drugs and drug addictions, of doctors who wonder how to shake hands with the prisoners they treat and nurses who come to confession because death has worked its way into their souls. Above all, it's truth: that our bodies, and the bodies of those we love and care for, so often take us to places we never knew existed, to find strengths we never knew we had. If illness and death are lonesome roads we must at some point travel, I can't think of a more fitting companion than this volume. The writers here come as strangers to us, but they bring us gifts--their stories--that connect us whether in pain or compassion."--Paul Shepherd, editor of Hospital Drive and author of More Like Not Running Away-- (3/3/2018 12:00:00 AM)
"I read Bodies of Truth almost in one sitting, so compelling are the stories. To read this many of them--different illnesses and disabilities, and from different perspectives--is strangely heartening. This is all of us, represented here, wounded in one way or another or looking after the wounded. If we can say how it is, and be listened to, surely the exposure will heal a lot of festering. I am glad to have this beautifully orchestrated, passionately written collection."--Fleda Brown, author of My Wobbly Bicycle: Meditations on Cancer and the Creative Life-- (3/3/2018 12:00:00 AM)
"Bodies of Truth offers personal accounts of individuals caught up in the lived experience of illness. . . . They are not necessarily asking us to judge, to change the world, or even to react. They merely ask, as did Coleridge's ancient mariner, that we pause to hear the tale, setting aside for a moment the tasks at hand."--Jacek L. Mostwin, professor of urology and the director of the Division of Neurological and Reconstructive Urology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and faculty affiliate of the Berman Institute of Bioethics-- (3/3/2018 12:00:00 AM)
