Love and Laughter in the Time of Chemotherapy

Manjusha's experience with cancer, chemotherapy, and a stem cell implant is one of those great reads that will stay with you for a long, long time. The book is her incredible story of receiving painful cancer treatments, surviving long stays in the hospital, submitting to chemotherapy, obtaining a donor's stem cells, and eventually gaining her health back. Her incredible story also revolves around her husband's, friends' and family's constant support, and most gratifying of all (and now I'm getting the goose bumps back that I got at the end of her book), was the opportunity to finally meet her donor and his family.

Manjusha's writing hooked me from the very beginning. It is informative and gives great detail on the medical side. Manjusha also writes about her fears, feelings, and heartache about getting cancer. This is not a depressing book however, when you realize how much she went through. It is actually an uplifting story (and yes, there's a happy ending), and the writing is candid, and even humorous, at times. I highly recommend this wonderful read. Thank you for telling your story, Manjusha.

I received this book through NetGalley. (less)

What an insightful, funny, self-aware book full of heart and soul! The author has shared her personal experiences with cancer, chemo and further recovery with a lot of useful information.

A very honest portrayal of life after receiving a cancer diagnosis. At times brutal and despairing, at others positive, witty and hopeful this book provides an insight into the impact such a diagnosis can have on a person and their family. The detailed chronicling of the therapy and the set-backs Manjusha faces as a result backs up the assertion of many patients that the treatment is often more difficult to cope with than the disease. The meeting with Manjusha's donor was handled sensitively and one would hope that this book will encourage more donors to come forward, irrespective of their ethnicity. The fact that Manjusha manages to regain her health and rebalance her life following her successful, but extremely difficult, treatment regime would make this an inspirational read for patients and care-givers alike.

Having gone through chemo myself, and having written a book on cancer, I was a bit torn on whether or not to order this book. Had I had enough of reading and writing about chemo? But this book is so fresh it was a reward and an inspiration. It stands out for humor, yes, but more than that: honesty and literary inventiveness. It's a memoir of Manjusha Pawagi's life with a rare form of leukemia, but it is far from self-centered—we meet her large bubble of family and friends, learn about her as a child and as a judge, and get precise details on her treatments and reactions to them. The book is energetic and laugh-out-loud hilarious where others might be somber or maudlin. And her humor is so sophisticated and tied to the story it was difficult to simply share a line or two to explain to my husband what I was laughing about—instead, I am suggesting he read the book. Yet, Pawag pulls no punches about the serious risks she faced and her reckoning with death. Fortunately, that was postponed—I hope for many, many decades. This is one of those books for which the ending comes far too soon. I wanted Manjusha in my life a bit longer.