The Cancer Journals

by Audre Lorde

Book Overview

Moving between journal entry, memoir, and exposition, Audre Lorde fuses the personal and political as she reflects on her experience coping with breast cancer and a radical mastectomy.

A Penguin Classic

First published over forty years ago, The Cancer Journals is a startling, powerful account of Audre Lorde's experience with breast cancer and mastectomy. Long before narratives explored the silences around illness and women's...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143135201
• ISBN13: 9780143135203
• Release Date: October 2020
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 4.9" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

A must read for all especially in health care

I'm a student nurse and bought this book for a class I'm taking. It was an amazing read! I may not have agreed with all of her points considering the medical advances that have been made and changes that have occured since the original was published, maybe in part due to Audre. It's a very candid take on living with cancer through the eyes of the cancer "warrior." It is a definate must read for anyone in the medical profession since she brings up several events that stood out concerning her nurses and doctors. She was a black, lesbian, feminist, poet, warrior and she really brought a lot of thought provoking topics into my life.

Thought provoking

Audre Lorde gives a good idea of exactly what she's feeling in her journals, even down to the negative aspects of her disease that some would more than likely keep to themselves. I appreciate her frankness and willingness to open up to other women thinking the same things. The thoughts bounced around a bit but overall I appreciate her putting her journey into words.

Courageous Memoir

Lorde's book will be of interest to those battling breast cancer and feminists, but also to anyone wanting to learn from a difficult experience. Lorde teaches us how to speak out against the injuustices done women, what it's like to survive in a hostile, male-chauvinist universe. Although the book is sad the wisdom it contains readily makes up for its difficcult content. Lorde's struggle is successful because she manages to rise above the difficulties caused by breast cancer--being one-breasted, for example--and overcome them. Her book is visionary.

It's a great tool in overcomming the fear of breast cancer.

I cried through most of this book. Not out of pity for what Audre was going through, but simply because I have seldom seen anyone face such a crisis with such nobility and strength. On some level I think we all fear breast cancer. This book took the terror out of it for me and made me feel that if I were to end up with cancer that I would somehow come through it okay. Audre demonstrates that no matter how bad things get there is something to be learned and gained by the experience. She is a very inspiring and admirable women. She deals with the issue from both a practical, political, intellectual standpoint as well as an emotional one. I would recomend this book for anyone who has, or knows anyone with cancer, and for anyone who simply gets overwhelmed by the thought of someday getting breast cancer.She took on a tough and painful subject with the sensitivity and style of the poet she was , and gave us some wisdom to live by.