A very well written memoir that reads like a journalist wrote it. Often memoirs aren’t that well written as the writers aren’t professional authors. It immediately caught my attention that it was well written and like any good journalist the writer did their homework. Much of the narrative is his personal story but he surrounded it with his research to further provide the whole “story” on this awful disease that scientists have made so much progress towards a cure but still have a ways to go. Knowing people with multiple myeloma I am very grateful for this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early release in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I enjoyed this book, though I wouldn't adopt it for a college classroom. Nonetheless, it is an emotionally wrenching and ultimately hopeful narrative which drew me in, and I enjoyed it very much.

Journalist Jonathan Gluck has done masterful research to allow readers to explore his twenty-year journey with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood. Twenty years of biopsies and increasingly complex therapies that also, fortunately, improved in efficacy; twenty years that encompassed the Covid pandemic, dozens of bouts of insurance pre-authorizations, job insecurity, the birth and coming of age of his children, the strain of marital conflict, miracles of forgiveness and science. He pulls no punches and spares no detail. An Exercise in Uncertainty is about the most notorious of illnesses, but it is also an epic about life.

A terrifically written memoir about a long battle with cancer, waged successfully but not without cost. Author Gluck avoids the sentimentality and the bromides that so often dot an account like this one. The book is also an interesting glimpse at how cancer treatments have evolved over two decades.

Jonathan Gluck masterfully explains what it is to live in indefinite uncertainty. He takes the reader on a journey from diagnosis to treatment to remission, and then back again. At times heart wrenching and others hilarious, Jonathan’s story is one that any chronic disease patient should read!