cover image Survivor: My Fight Against Cancer

Survivor: My Fight Against Cancer

Laura Landro. Simon & Schuster, $18 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-684-84335-3

Although the subtitle is given in second person, only the opening and closing sections of this volume speak directly to the reader. The rest is a first-person account of the author's battle with leukemia more than six years ago. Landro, entertainment editor for the Wall Street Journal, describes in graphic terms the hell she went through during treatment. Intensive chemotherapy, radiation and a bone marrow transplant made her lose all her hair, enter menopause at age 37 and rendered her unable to stomach even a lemon drop. But Landro's was a well-padded hell: her mother is an expert nurse, both brothers had compatible bone marrow (a rarity), the Journal's extensive resources were at her fingertips and she had the means to fly around the country to investigate treatment options and rent a deluxe apartment in Seattle for her year of treatment there. Readers will, as she does, appreciate the value of a supportive family, plenty of income and connections to medical communities. For those without these advantages, however, Landro offers plenty of encouragement and worthwhile information. Her story also emphasizes the importance of what money and position can't buy: an indomitable will to survive. (Oct.)