The author, a professor of English at the University of Montana and author of Springs of Liberty, had his prostate cancer treated with radiation seed implants, and his experience as a patient led to this reflection on how cancer is viewed and publicized in our society. Although some of Justman's comments are provocative, the narrative so frequently rambles that his points are obscured. Drawing on his academic background, Justman alludes to works of art, history and literature to make his arguments. He uses, for example, Tolstoy's "Death of Ivan Ilych," to argue that fictional works of great authors that describe the tragedy of an ordinary man are as valid as the first-person narrative accounts of actual heroic cancer sufferers currently in vogue. It is clear that the author does not approve of the so-called transparency movement in cancer circles, whereby support groups of patients discuss their feelings. Justman also questions the validity of such activities as yoga and visualization as cures for cancer, preferring reticence and offering Brueghel's painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
as a masterpiece of understatement. In the end, this is an iconoclastic but meandering look at the cancer culture. (Apr.)
