Customer Reviews

Death Be Not Proud

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

John Gunther's only son, Johnny Gunther, died in 1947. Death Be Not Proud is the remarkable and compelling memoir of the death of his son, Johnny Gunther, who suddenly developed a brain tumor at the young age of seventeen. The tumor emerged, seemed to be almost gone, and then suddenly came back and killed him fifteen months later. By the book's title and the first few pages, the reader knows that Johnny will not survive. This makes the story even more tragic as the reader turns every page knowing that even if things are getting better, they are about to go wrong again.
Johnny's brain was possibly the most important thing in his body, as he was a very intelligent person. The subject Johnny loved the most was science; if he had survived he probably would have been able to develop a cure for his very own tumor. He was deciding between two occupations at the time of his sickness: a physicist or a chemist. During the fifteen months of Johnny's illness, he was optimistic about living - the disease hurt his brain, but never his spirit. He went through much pain, but he never complained and kept up with his schoolwork while he was in the hospital or, sometimes, at home. Although he missed his entire senior year at Deerfield because of the tumor, he was allowed to graduate with the rest of his class. As his father wrote, "He died absolutely without fear, and without pain, and without knowing that he was going to die." Unlike most people with a deadly disease, Johnny lived his short life victoriously. Johnny "...did not die like a vegetable. He died like a man, with perfect dignity."
John Gunther writes about his son's struggle with death in a vivid and intriguing way. As the book was written in the late 1940's, the writing is also a little stilted - although it is still very interesting. Part of Gunther's writing style is to use exclamation points at the end of many sentences for emphasis. For example, when he wrote about the early days of Johnny's illness, he used many exclamation points: "That first spinal tap!-the first of many, and spinal taps can be frightening as well as painful. All the other tests!...And the doctors! So many doctors!"
I admire John Gunther for writing this book about his son's death, probably with tears in his eyes during the entire process of writing it. Johnny's parents divorced when he was young, but Gunther still talks about his ex-wife fondly throughout the book. There is also a section written by Johnny's mother at the end of the memoir allowing the reader to view Johnny's struggle against death from both his father and mother's perspective. John Gunther concludes the story by writing in his vivid, lucid style: "I felt his arms, cupping my hands around them, and warmth gradually left them, receding very slowly upward from his hands. For a long time some warmth remained. Then little by little the life-color left his face, his lips became blue, and his hands were cold. What is life? It departs covertly. Like a thief Death took him." The memory of Johnny remains with the reader past the moment of his death. I would recommend this book to all parents who have seen their children suffer, or those who simply enjoy a well-written (although heartbreaking) book.

I also attended a private school near deerfield (the school Johnny went to). John Sr. tells an amazing story of his son's strength through a terrible brain tumor during the 1940's. John explains the positive attitute that young Johnny poses even after he finds out he is sick. Johnny keeps up his spirits and instead of worrying about dying, his main concern is getting back to deerfield academy as soon as possible so he can see his friends and graduate. Its always great to read about the Gunthers ride up through western massachusetts and to talk about the famous Mr. Boyden- who was the beloved head master of the school at that time and a legend to the old deerfield community.
This book makes any teenager want to cherish life to the fullest as Johnny did and also makes adults who read this show much sympathy to the parents because losing an amazing son like John is devistating.
This book is easy to read and definitely makes you want you thankful for the small things in life- as Johnny did!

Death Be Not Proud is a memoir written by John Gunther about the death of his seventeen-year old son. Johnny Gunther was a bright and spirited boy interested in everything from chemistry to religion. It was a shock when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor at sixteen, but Johnny dealt with it with grace and hope. He continued to take a lively interest in science and the arts, even keeping up with his schoolwork. After more than a year of harrowing treatments, Johnny died on June 30, 1947, shortly after graduating with his class.

Throughout this book, the author continuously explores the themes of hope and death. Unfortunately, these insights are clogged by many needless details, ranging from Johnny¡¯s dinner that day to his latest scientific experiment. These seem to imply that the author did not really know his son very well. The book reads rather slowly and tediously. In addition, the journal entries and letters at the back seemed to serve no purpose besides filling up space.

However, Death Be Not Proud would be an excellent book for someone suffering the death of a beloved one. The author, instead of focusing on his own grief, wrote fondly on his many memories. Instead of dwelling on the unpleasant aspects of Johnny¡¯s illness, John Gunther spoke poignantly on the almost normal times in-between. Death Be Not Proud would help many channel their grief into remembrance of the richness of life.

This is a really well written book. It is really sad, but insipring how this family is always on the son's side during all the treatments for the son's brain tumor.

This book was very well written I won't deny that for it had all the justifying characteristics of a tragedy. Johnny, an incredibly smart kid, has a deadly tumor that will revolve around the rest of his life. This book was written by Johnny's loving father and this memoir shows how deep their relationship was. This is a wonderful book but the reason why I rated it so low was because I felt it was unbelievebly slow.

DEATH BE NOT PROUD is the unforgettable story of Johnny Gunther, who died of a brain tumor in 1947. At that time, a brain tumor meant certain death, for doctors were only then beginning to understand such things well enough to treat them at all. Today, someone with Johnny's illness has a far better chance of surviving. But Johnny faced his diagnosis and the terrible outlook with patience, courage, and humor. This is a strangely uplifting and triumphant story, told in a straightforward, honest manner by Johnny's father. He tells not only of what it was like for Johnny, but what it was like to watch his own son slowly slip away. Most of the time, people with brain tumors would ultimately lose all function and die like 'vegetables', but this didn't happen to Johnny. In the end, he had a cerebral hemmorhage and died peacefully, without really knowing that his time had come. Johnny was a brilliant boy with great abilities at science and math. Had he survived, he himself may have become a doctor and found the cure for his disease. There is no way of knowing what would have been; the book tells only what was. It is more objective than would ordinarily be expected. John Gunther was fully aware of his son's shortcomings, but, like everyone else who knew Johnny, he was impressed by the fortitude and bravery with which he faced illness and death. Please buy this beautiful book! You'll never forget it! Also recommended: THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez

A wonderful, thoughtful, and courageous book.
I recommend this book for everybody, it is a lesson of life. Written wonderfully. I read eating it up. So brave. So sad. So brilliant. So lovely. So pure!

In the novel Death Be not Proud the main character Johnny is a young boy who is very intelligent and loves school. Suddenly he begins to feel stiffness on his neck and he is taken to the hospital to be checked by specialists to see if he has a brain tumor. The doctor discovers that Johnny will not have a long time to live and that he will eventually die soon. Johnny manages to stay positive and actually very humorous for he once thought that he had some other kind of disease or something that seems to be ridiculous or obviously untrue. He is more worried about if he has time to finish his homework rather than his own sickness. Johnny goes through ongoing surgeries of extraction of the orange sized tumor. Hours of pain and suffering, sometimes he would get better fast but then soon quickly get worse than he was before. Johnny went from doctor to doctor trying to find some kind of cure if possible. He comes across an experimental method involving mustard gas, but it gives Johnny really bad side effects and slightly makes him a little better. After Johnny going from surgery to surgery he gets better but then AGAIN! Worsens but this time it is his last visit to the hospital because he went to sleep and never woke up. He ended up dying, leaving people sad and crying everyone thought that Johnny was a very lively person; his ambition is what many people thought kept him alive. This story of Johnny brought his family together to be there for him because his father and mother were divorced so they began to have that same connection amongst each other again.I thought that this novel would be a good novel to read because it's not that long and it's an interesting story about a man and his son who share a relationship that not many have with their parents. I would defiantly recommend this book because this novel shows the struggle of this one young intelligent boy who is ready, who got his plans together and all of a sudden it is taken away from him ironically by his tumor, which is found in his head. There are specific examples that show how Johnny is an intelligent person who has a positive mind, "He was going to beat this evil, lawless thing! He'd show the surgeons how a boy with a real will to live could live!" Johnny being humorous his intelligence and thirst for homework was kind of funny because usually a child would write a letter to their parents saying, "I miss you" or something like that, but instead Johnny writes, "Here's a list of chemicals..." Johnny gives his dad a list of tasks that he wants him to do and bring for the next visit. A really cool part that I thought about the book was how Johnny actually got to write a letter to Albert Einstein about a physics-related idea of his and gets a response. The idea turns out to concern the "Unified Field Theory", and a physics professor tells Gunther that he's "...amazed Johnny is aware of the problem at such a young age." These are just a few examples that prove that this is an interesting book to read. It reflects how death is faced by all people at different time unexpectedly sometimes and how to deal with these types of problems. I think it's really cool how they use the concept that if you have a strong will to live then it is possible to make it through sickness for longer than expected.

It's the rare person who wasn't assigned "Death Be Not Proud" in school, but it's a book that seems to turn up quite often in people's collections. It's funny to read the rather scathing reviews from teenagers who mock it ...because they seem to forget that this book was originally published in the late 1940s when books like this were practically unknown. John Gunther had originally written this for private circulation, but was prevailed upon to publish it so that others who had lost a child might gain strength.

It's obvious from the first page that Johnny Gunther was loved as only a cherished only son could be. He was quite possibly a math and science prodigy and seemed to be destined for great things when the brain tumor first emerged, the tumor that would fluctuate, nearly disappear, and then come back to kill him in the space of fifteen months. While reading the book, it struck me that Johnny seemed to be more concerned about how his illness affected his parents than how it affected him--not surprising, considering that John and Frances Gunther were divorced and had been since Johnny was small, quite unusual at that time among upper-middle-class families. It was also refreshing that the mention of God and religion were practically avoided--Johnny describes himself a few times as an atheist; the prayer that he wrote that is so frequently cited is actually called "The Unbeliever's Prayer." One has to wonder if the near-canonization of Johnny by his father is an exorcism of the guilt Gunther had as a divorced father whose constant travels distanced him from his son. It's apparent, particularly in Johnny's letters, that Johnny was much closer to his mother than his father.

I've always found Johnny's letters to be the most interesting section of "Death Be Not Proud." If he had lived today, he'd undoubtedly be a massive computer nerd! He displayed a lot of the characteristics of the spoiled only child of divorced parents, but at the same time he acknowledged that he knew this and displayed a good sense of humor about it. Even fifty-six years later, his good nature shines through, making the "what if" question even more poignant. Death, indeed, should not be proud that it took Johnny Gunther at the age of seventeen, but we should all commend John Gunther for giving us a glimpse into a young, brilliant life.

I liked the book because it was sad. It was sad because it's hard to imagine going through that at such a young age, knowing that you have a tumor.

Throughout the book, Johnny tries to be like any other little boy, but he knows he will be dead soon. He has a Gliomass (a brain tumor) that will eventually kill him. He dies at a very young age, but he tried to fight it.

I would recommend this book to a lot of people. It was sad, but informative. It made me more appreciative of life and all that I have.