Now It's Funny

Cancer is not one bit funny. So don't be misled by a book title suggesting otherwise: Now It's Funny. How I Survived Cancer, Divorce, and Other Looming Disasters.

Michael Solomon offers a fresh take on cancer survivorship. Self-deprecating F-bomb-laced humor surrounds tender reflections and hopefulness.

This memoir by a 40-ish producer of documentaries begins with his decision to finally schedule his overdue screening colonoscopy, a test needed because of his family history of colon cancer. One thing leads to another, but the bottom line is he...

• Has lymphoma.
• Faces his mortality.
• Undergoes surgery and achieves remission.
• Tries to glean the life-enhancing lessons of surviving life-threatening illness.
• Develops a recurrence before he has a chance to adjust to life after cancer.
• Undergoes surgery and achieves a second remission.
• Strives to accept the uncertainty, use the life lessons in ways that make him a better father, ex-husband, friend...human being. 

Clearly, his is a ho-hum storyline in our age of Facebook and CaringBridge.

But the nuggets of wisdom skillfully wedged between the bullet points make this a good read for people who want to understand the cancer experience -- whether theirs or that of a loved one.

To get to those nuggets, you have to get past the cover (a photo of a man in a hospital gown, unwittingly mooning the reader) and the R-rated language, both of which made me terribly uncomfortable.

But that's the point, isn't it? Finding peace with the discomforts. Getting past the pain to embrace life, whatever the circumstances.

Comments

[Bill Kleine]

I needed a book. The director of our Cancer Hotline is retiring next week. In another life she was a writer, and still another an editor. She has talked to countless folks in difficult places. She has that sort of off-center humor that comes from laughing, not so much at death, but in the face of it because you're so full of life. This will be perfect!