5 Memoirs That Will Blow Your Mind
Honest, powerful and moving,
these real-life stories are as gripping as a novel.
By Kelly McMasters
4 of 5
Dying
By Cory Taylor
152 pages;
Tin House Books
"About two years ago I bought a euthanasia drug online
from China." So begins Australian novelist Cory Taylor's too-short memoir
on the unrelenting and terrifying act of dying. Written over the course of a
few weeks as her aggressive brain cancer spreads and treatment options cease,
the book examines the decisions facing the 60-year-old mother. She considers
the only deaths she's ever witnessed: that of her parents and of a close
friend. And she yearns to take evening walks with her husband—now made
impossible by her thin frame (she weighs, at this point, less than her
neighbor's retriever). Perhaps the most moving moments in the book are Taylor's
thoughts on isolation. Apart from palliative care specialists, none of her
doctors will talk with her about dying. The secret meetings she attends—held
by a support group for those interested in assisted suicide—become a
kind of emotional balm. A deeply personal conversation about the alchemy of
death, this brave memoir reveals the intimacy of the act, where "we're
like the last survivors on a sinking ship, huddled together for warmth."
— Kelly McMasters
Published 08/01/2017