I read a book about dying from cancer. I laughed all the way through. I then pondered long and hard as to where I would review this. 350Wordsorless is for books actually inthe Odell Learning Resources Centre library. As you can tell, I’m going to get this book but may display it in my office while I’m thinking through the harder questions.
I simply wouldn’t bother scratching my head over a poorly written or insignificant book… but this is neither. The story is told by Hazel, a seventeen year old who does not go to college much, and has become fixated on a particular book (an invention of the author) called An Imperial Affliction. Hazel’s life has been somewhat constrained by having serious cancer, so serious that she is permanently on oxygen and, as far as she knows at the start of the book, facing only a limited time left on earth.
Almost everything that follows is the opposite to the reader’s expectation. Hazel fits no simple stereotypical cancer victim persona. She is feisty, but refuses to be “brave”. Her parents are admirable and understanding, and while she finds them irritating at times she does not hate them. While many of the people you meet in the book also have cancer of various sorts, some very significant people in her life do not. Hazel is not exactly an ordinary teen, despite her “teenspeak” language, and shows a distinctly philosophical bent (in part influenced by the book she can’t stop reading and thinking about).
Hazel questions much of the conventional “dance” of the cancer patient… doctor’s attitudes, support group platitudes, even her parents insistence that she “gets out more and makes friends”. She does, with unexpected consequences.
This is not a self help book about coping with cancer. It is a book about friendship, romance and serious relationships, philosophy, death, grief, family and afterlife. While most of it is reasonably realistic, Hazel does encounter at least one larger than life character, but even he is essentially made up of super failings rather than super powers.
I enjoyed this from cover to cover… so if you are reading this as a parent you will be wondering what could possibly cause me any concern (spoilers follow). Writing: very nicely done, swinging from “teen speak” to philosophy and back. Language: not too bad, mostly restrained. Violence: emotionally tough in parts but no physical violence. Sex: Hazel does go to bed with her boyfriend. It is handled discreetly but there is absolutely no doubt what does happen. Morality and overall hopefulness: this is a book that investigates death from cancer from the eyes of a teenager, and is consequently potentially harrowing for some. It does it (I believe) very well. Family allegiance is celebrated, as is faithfulness to friends and to those you are romantically involve with. Generosity, honesty and a kind of gritty positivity is pushed to the forward. Christianity: some of the Christians in the story are not shown as being especially helpful or responsive to Hazel’s real needs or ideas, on the other hand both sets of parents in the book seem to be church goers and this is not handled negatively. One of the characters believes in life after death (though not necessarily in a straightforward Christian context), another does not.
So now you know… or at least enough to say “that’s the book for me” or “nah… not so much”. I hope adults do read this book… and I think it will have some positive things to say to teenagers who venture into its pages. Remember how I started? It’s a book about dying from cancer, and I laughed all the way through.
Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre
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