- Hardcover: 128 pages
- Publisher: Abrams (Mar 1 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0810958406
- ISBN-13: 978-0810958401
- Product Dimensions: 18.6 x 13.6 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 340 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #601,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
D on't let the title put you off: collecting the Eisner Award–winning Web comic of the same name, this story is more about how a life-altering event affects an entire family than another Lifetime disease-of-the-week story. When freelance writer Fies finds out his mother has both lung cancer and a brain tumor, her attempts to fight the disease—including rounds of radiation and chemotherapy—pull her entire family into the struggle. Fies is gentle but honest in telling his story. He refrains from painting his mother as a saint, depicting her instead as someone getting through a horrible situation by refusing to acknowledge just how bad it is. Nor does he shy away from the more complicated emotions his mother's health generates, including a sometimes heated rivalry with his two sisters (knowledgeable "Nurse Sis" and empathetic "Kid Sis"). Fies is most compelling when he finds insight in small details unique to his mother's experience, such as the strength she draws from a leather purse her father made while confined in a tuberculosis sanitarium. The clean, simple comic-strip quality of Fies's art fits the story perfectly, highlighting the gravity of the situation while cutting away undue sentimentality. Mom's Cancer is a quiet, courageous account of one family's response to a universal situation. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
In a suave comic-strip style rather like those of Gary Trudeau (Doonesbury) and Berke Breathed (Bloom County), Fies traces the events of his mother's illness primarily from the perspective of her three children, including "nurse sis" and "kid sis" (adult but the youngest) as well as himself. After a "mini stroke," his mother was diagnosed with lung cancer that had metastasized to the brain. A vital and positive woman who had been a model with hopes of Hollywood, she opted to fight the disease whole hog. Fies and his sisters pitched in to help her during the ensuing debilitation, seeing her through to tentative remission and an -eleventh-hour (as it happened) move to Hollywood with kid sis. Depicting a family dependably if warily dealing, not without anger and feelings of inadequacy, with each crisis and change that cancer brings, Fies' book may be one of the most well balanced contributions to the literature of coping with cancer. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
laughter - the best medicine,
By Jennifer A. Jilks "author: Living & Dying Wi... (Perth, Ontario CANADA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mom's Cancer (Hardcover)
- need I say more? There comes a point when laughter is difficult, but in the meantime let it go!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews) 7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
If someone in your family has cancer....,
By Eva C. Whitley - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Mom's Cancer (Hardcover)
It's less about Mom than her three adult children (pseudonymously portrayed here as the narrator, Nurse Sis, and Kid Sis) and how they cope with the news and subsequent treatment for Mom. Vivid visual metaphors (the Operation Game, superheroes, the "tightrope" of treatment) combine with heartfelt writing (smokers won't be pleased with how they're portrayed) for an unforgettable portrait of a family in crisis. It has a simple, clean graphic style that will appeal to readers who are not regular readers of graphic novels.If your mother smokes, this, and and "the patch" would make an excellent present. 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Close to home,
By Joe Smith - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Mom's Cancer (Hardcover)
My family shared many of the experiences of the author's family during my mother's cancer. It's compelling, touching and hopeful.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's Sometimes Hard To Tell The Poisons From The Cures, Because Sometimes They Are The Same Things,
By One More Option - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Mom's Cancer (Hardcover)
"What to do when pain rips through our brains like a tornado. We need the truth." - Barbara, the author's mother's, wrote that thought after reading this book.This is an excellent graphic novel about one family's experience with Stage 4 Large-Cell Carcinoma (a.k.a. - Cancer). A story is often only as good as the heart of the person telling it. If that sentiment is true, it explains in large part why this story is so good. If you can make a story about dealing with your mother's terminal cancer funny and life-affirming, you are creating a pretty intelligent and well-crafted piece of writing. His artwork is consistently excellent, never distracting, and peaceful in the midst of life-threatening circumstances. The visuals are coordinated with the words fluidly, immediately conveying the ideas and emotions with very few ambiguities. This graphic novel won an Eisner Award in it's online format. Brian Fies tells us in the preface, "Although I distrust stories with lessons, here is one: No one will care more about your life than you do, and no one is better qualified to chart its course than you are. You are the expert." As you might expect, like all real stories, this one does not end with everyone living happily ever after. But fortunately, the characters do re-prioritize and choose to change the remaining time in their lives to live as happily as they can until there is no after. As the preface accurately creates the expectation "Mom's Cancer is an honest, earnest effort to turn something bad into something good." I admire and encourage that human artistic drive, and Brian Fies is successful in achieving that goal and many other beautiful artistic goals. |
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