Both Sides Now
Author: Pennebaker, Ruth
Published in: 2000
Reprinted by: Henry Holt and Company (2002)
Number of pages:202 (+14 additional)
Main characters:
Liza, Rebecca, Will, Jane, Richard,...
Plot:
Liza's mother, Rebecca, has a breast cancer. It almost seemed that she has got over it but then new tests reveals that even stronger (and so more harmful) treatments are needed. Her mother's disease changes a lot Liza's life too. She tries to keep it in secret but dispite this lots of people feel sorry for her and her family. Soon the whole family is fed up with words of sympathy and questions about Rebecca's disease. The family doesn't even talk much together and is slowly splitting up. Each member of the family changes. In the end the mother surprisingly becames the strongest person because she feels she must take an action to keep the family together. And she also rejects to undergo the stem-cell transplantation which means she is probably going to die sooner. The rest of the family is astonished by her decision but Rebecca explains them that because of the cancer she is not afraid of death any more because she knows what her destiny is going to be.
Comments:
I really like some ideas that were mention in the book - mostly said by the mother. On the other hand the story of Liza didn't impress me at all. It seems to me that some part of the book were written just to "fill in the space" and no because they were important for the story as such. And for example spending so much time and space writing about Liza and her boyfriend Richard seems really tacky to me. Aren't nearly all books full of this stuff? But otherwise: the book is quite "readible" and the English is not too difficult
Extract:
"I don't like it. I don't want Mom to get sick again." Jane takes a spoon and starts cutting up her toast into little, curved, buttery pieces. She's making a mess all over the table, but Dad doesn't say anything about it. "Of course you don't like it," Dad says. "Liza and I don't like it either. And neither does Mom. But after this is over, she's going to be healthier that she was before." Dad reacher out and touches Jane's hand, and the spoon slips out of it. "It's going to be all right, Janie." Jane jerks her hand back. "People die from cancer." She sounds angry. Why's she so angry at Dad? It isn't his fault. "They die all the time from cancer. A girl at my school -Suzanne Thatcher- Her mother died from breast cancer last year. And that's what Mom has. Breast cancer. She might die from it."