cover image Take It and Leave It

Take It and Leave It

Renate Rubinstein. Marion Boyars Publishers, $14.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-7145-2883-0

The translation from the Dutch here is so expert that one seems to hear Rubinstein herself telling her story. A columnist for an Amsterdam weekly, she has kept working although she has become increasingly debilitated by multiple sclerosis. Trenchantly witty and betraying no bitterness, she is ``full of good advice to myself,'' and to readers needing their spirits lifted in trying times. Rubinstein offers pointers also on how to decide on treatments, based on her often frustrating if humorous encounters with vague prognoses, etc. She relates that she has also gathered strength from books about people like herself who defy disabilities and carry on: Matisse, the conductor Otto Klemperer, Chekhov and others. (Jan.)