cover image Writing Out the Storm

Writing Out the Storm

Barbara Abercrombie. St. Martin's Griffin, $16.99 (160pp) ISBN 978-0-312-28545-6

Ignore the title, which is bad. It's okay, even, to ignore the writing exercises. Barbara Abercrombie's Writing Out the Storm: Reading and Writing Your Way Through Serious Illness or Injury is a moving, unsentimental portrait of the author with breast cancer, as she navigates her fear of death and love of writing with intelligence and grace; it's a worthwhile book for anyone who's ever thought about writing or thought about sickness. With excerpts from the famous (Raymond Carver, Andre Dubus, Gilda Radner) and the un- (a Spanish-speaking woman who distances herself from her cancer by only writing about it in English), Abercrombie, who teaches in the UCLA Extension Writer's Program, shows how others have dealt with mortal issues and how ""nothing can heal the spirit like creativity and faith."" (Oct.)