Our Cancers - Poems

On the fourteenth anniversary of 9/11, Dan O'Brien's wife finds a lump in her breast and is diagnosed with colon cancer. This book is a compelling account of illness and commitment, parenthood and partnership, and creates an intimate mythology that seeks meaning in illness while celebrating the resilience of sufferers, caregivers, and survivors.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 102 pages
Publication date: 14 September 2021
Publisher: Acre Books

On the fourteenth anniversary of 9/11, an event that caused their downtown apartment to become "suffused with the World Trade Center carcinogenic dust," Dan O'Brien's wife discovers a lump in her breast. Surgery and chemotherapy soon follow, and on the day of his wife's final infusion, O'Brien learns of his own diagnosis. He has colon cancer and will need to undergo his own intensive treatment over the next nine months.

Our Cancer is a compelling account of illness and commitment, of parenthood and partnership. This spare and powerful sequence creates an intimate mythology that seeks meaning in illness while also celebrating the resilience of sufferers, caregivers, and survivors.

As O'Brien explains in an introduction, "The consecutiveness of our personal disasters, with a daughter not yet two years old at the start of it, was shattering and nearly silencing. At hospital bedsides, in hospital beds myself, and at home through the cyclical assaults of our therapies, these poems came to me in fragments, as if my unconscious were attempting to reassemble our lives, our identities, and memories. . . . As if I were in some sense learning how to speak again."

The poems in Our Cancer are arranged in a spare and powerful sequence, creating an intimate mythology that seeks meaning in illness while also celebrating the resilience of sufferers, caregivers, and survivors. The book is divided into three sections: "The Diagnosis," "The Treatment," and "The Recovery."

In the first section, "The Diagnosis," O'Brien describes the moment he learns of his wife's cancer and the subsequent diagnosis of his own colon cancer. He describes the physical and emotional toll of the treatments, as well as the fear and uncertainty that accompanies them.

In the second section, "The Treatment," O'Brien describes the intensive chemotherapy and radiation treatments he undergoes. He describes the physical pain and exhaustion, as well as the emotional toll of the treatments on his wife and daughter.

In the third section, "The Recovery," O'Brien describes the long road to recovery. He describes the physical and emotional challenges he faces, as well as the support of his family and friends.

Throughout the book, O'Brien explores the themes of illness, resilience, and hope. He describes the ways in which illness has changed his life and the ways in which he has found meaning and purpose in it. He also celebrates the resilience of his wife and daughter, and the support of his family and friends.

Our Cancer is a powerful and moving book that will resonate with anyone who has faced illness or knows someone who has. It is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of hope and resilience.

Weight: 144g
Dimension: 142 x 217 x 10 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781946724427