This was an honest and unflinching journey into the Cancerland Jungle. Mary described beautifully what she felt and what she needed and what she didn’t need.

A book to be read by everyone.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4

Mary Dunnewold’s matter of fact, yet descriptive, writing tells the unique story of her cancer journey. She covers both medical and emotional aspects common to breast cancer survivors.

Dunnewold offers some some advice and other truths. “The people who love you want to help…They need to be involved... My advice: assume everyone around you is doing their best, and let them love you.” “Cancer does not just affect our bodies. It gets at the fundamentals of who we are.”

I could relate to Mary’s story from Chapter One, and I think other survivors will too. She writes, “I felt perfectly fine. My treatment took my apparently perfectly healthy body and mutilated, poisoned, and irradiated it, making it incredibly sick and unhappy.” The emotions expressed are genuine. “I felt violated because two men had just signed their names on my chest, even though I had consented to them doing so. I needed someone to tend my soul.” In the end, she writes, “I didn’t survive cancer. I endured the inconvenience of cancer, with as much grace as I could muster, while living my life as best I could.”

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Cancer Survivor's Memoir
This book brings the drama and trauma of the cancer diagnosis home. From the first repeated mammogram, diagnosis, surgery, chemo, radiation, until 'cancer free', everything is brought to the light of day. While this book is about one woman (meaning her, her family, friends, etc) and her battle with cancer, so much could be applied to any person with a severe, life-threatening disease. The emotional battle that accompanies the physical battle is tremendous. The book talks about things to do and not to do to help both the caregivers and the patient. Which ancillary services helped this woman and her loved ones. This is not light reading and can't be read in one sitting. Anyone who has been through a cancer diagnosis will be able to relate to this book, as will the caretakers. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

Mary Dunnewold's elegant FINE, THANKS is a moving memoir of her experience learning to live with cancer. I especially appreciated her meditations about the difference between grappling with a cancer diagnosis privately vs. living publically out in the world where cancer is stamped on your body for all to see. A book many women with cancer will want to read.

Mary Dunnewold was a yoga-practicing, organic-food-eating health geek. But six months after a clear mammogram, she was diagnosed with stage-three breast cancer. She had six tumors. The largest was the size of a summer plum.

In the next two years, she endured a bilateral mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation, and multiple reconstruction procedures. But she soon learned that navigating cancer involves more than suffering through the treatment gauntlet. How do you walk the aisles of a small-town Target, guilty of having cancer in public, wondering who knows and who doesn’t? Where do you look when the handsome plastic surgeon kneels in front of you to measure your body fat? What etiquette applies when, during a dinner party, your chest splits open like an overripe watermelon?

In this memoir, the author moves from needing a reason to explain her troubles to finding meaning despite the randomness that afflicts us all.

I found this a deeply touching and emotional memoir. Utterly impossible for me to put down.