This is a book about avoidance and confrontation, powerful personality and humbled soul, living life and confronting death, internalizing violence and evil and harvesting cancer. This is a difficult and often tearful read that is amazing and cathartic and rejuvenating. This is a memoir of Eve Ensler's bout with cancer, her psychological voyage through the disease, her trial by fire within the healthcare system and her eventual victory over the cancer that ravaged her body.
I couldn't help but be reminded of Dante's journey through Hell when I read this book. Ms. Ensler travels the world advocating for an end to violence against women and children. She recounts the endless people and places that she has witnessed, the causes she has invested her energy in, and tells of the violent family dynamics that caused her such early pain. It is clear that she has spent her life coming to terms with her father's violent and abusive treatment, her mother's passivity, her dangerous and rebellious behavior. Her past has fueled her passions for advocacy, but that advocacy took its toll on her body.
Her voyage through the diagnosis of uterine cancer, the surgical removal of various tumors, the complications of infection, the chemo therapy, and the soul searching and emotional tribulations make for such a powerful read ... that's all I can say. The woman is a force of nature ... a fighter ... a philosopher ... a strong female force for nurturance and peace and healing and feminine empowerment. God bless her.
It sounds like a good book and she is beautiful! I like real books with real stories and information. Food for thought. Best wishes, Tammy
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