cover image Fierce Joy: A Memoir

Fierce Joy: A Memoir

Ellen Schecter. Greenpoint (www.greenpointpress.org), $20 (276p) ISBN 978-0-9832370-4-4

Schecter's intimate recounting of her life-changing struggle with systemic lupus is a riveting journey of courage and determination. The author admits early on that "[t]here is no happy ending," but her frank declaration belies a tenacious will to survive. As the disease progresses, Schecter, a children's book and TV programming writer, explores medicinal alternatives like "hypnosis and trance work," but soon succumbs to the physical demands of her illness; a cane, 26 pills, and eventually "hideous metal crutches with arm cuffs" become a part of her daily effects. Rallying every "spiritual, pharmaceutical, psychological, [and] physical" resource available, Schecter resolutely continues to go through the motions of a normal life, at least to the extent that she is able%E2%80%94at an excruciating housewarming party, for which the author arrayed her "deteriorating silhouette%E2%80%A6 in flowing black silk and pearls," she is roundly snubbed by each guest, though she candidly points out her own dismissal of another party-goer sequestered in a wheelchair. Schecter's epiphany%E2%80%94that loss begets gratitude%E2%80%94is unsurprising, but her unsparing prose amounts to a fierce, funny, and inspirational story. (June)