More than one in two people will develop some form of cancer during their lifetime and, importantly, more people than ever are surviving cancer. This book makes a unique and utterly refreshing contribution to the lives of people affected by cancer: those diagnosed, their loved ones and the professionals who care for people with cancer.
The Breath of Consolation, Finding Solace in Cancer Literature presents 50 literary treasures that resonate, reverberate and offer solace. Solace is an important word in Brady’s work, like her carefully chosen and skilfully introduced literary pieces, the word solace is strategic; the act of providing comfort and consolation at a time of distress.
This book is also a timely and potent antidote to the tsunami of toxic “stay positive” propaganda inflicted on people affected by cancer. Such toxicity has leaked into everyday discourse where terms like “battle cancer” and “fight cancer” are commonplace and all too often add further burden to the person living with cancer.
One of the gems that Brady skilfully includes is a piece by Rebecca Loncraine: “After the diagnosis, many kind and supportive people told me I was in a ‘battle’ with cancer, and advised me about the skills needed to ‘fight’ the disease. It was a language of violence and conquest... I took the opposite approach: surrender, gentleness and vulnerability. In not fighting, I found a quiet attentiveness to the present moment and an intense intimacy with the world that revealed a raw toughness at my core, which gave me enormous strength to endure.”
Brady was a community librarian for most of her working life. She made a career out of introducing people to the written word, match-making the library user with literature that they perhaps didn’t know they’d been looking for. I suspect she became an exceptional literary match-maker because The Breath of Consolation demonstrates a deftness and deep psychological sensitivity to the range of emotions that people affected by cancer might experience.
Brady’s literary matchmaking skills, honed after years at the bench of community librarianship, are demonstrated in this sensitive compilation and significantly in her reflections on her chosen 50 works that are, to my mind, among the most delicate, impactful and soulful literature concerning cancer. Brady’s undertaking to introduce the reader to each of the 50 chosen pieces is a formidable task, one that she has delivered on beautifully in this accessible and wholehearted book.
This book offers something of a refuge, a warm, permission-giving refuge; where the range of human emotions that cancer provokes are acknowledged and validated
The Breath of Consolation presents a range of literature that offers the reader support and solace against the assault of fear, vulnerability and uncertainty cancer throws at us. She opens up a treasure trove of literature that does not attempt to simplify, but rather broadens out and embraces the complexity and contradictions of cancer. She offers these literary works and her reflections on them, as a companion to those who are affected by cancer.
As a healthcare professional who has worked in cancer care for more than 18 years, I feel this book is important for another reason. Professionals working in cancer care run the risk of becoming emotionally blunted; the day job can dull our sensitivity to the anguished inner worlds of the patients who walk into our clinics. Brady has compiled a collection of literature that offers even the most seasoned clinician a non-threatening way back into the human side of cancer, perhaps even a way back to why they started work in cancer care.
This book offers something of a refuge, a warm, permission-giving refuge; where the range of human emotions that cancer provokes are acknowledged and validated and allowed a safe place in what can at times be a very bleak landscape. Brady has skilfully curated a treasury of literature that mirrors the poet Rilke’s wise words concerning human emotions in this regard: “Let everything happen to you, beauty and terror, no feeling is final…”
Brady does not dodge the big questions, instead she dives into a range of literary responses when it comes to matters of spirituality and the vexing questions of God and an afterlife. She draws on the work of the staunchly atheist Christopher Hitchens and the lesser-known but nonetheless impressive spiritual poet Christian Wiman. In so doing, Brady is consistent in not offering simple answers to complex questions, but rather treating the reader like a grown-up who can tolerate degrees of uncertainty and nuance.
So often with a trauma such as cancer, people lose connection with their actual breath; we end up holding our breath, being breathless, unable to catch our breath. This book will allow us to slowly and gracefully reclaim our breath, offering solace and consolation in the finest literature impeccably compiled and lovingly introduced by a woman who has clearly walked the walk.
Paul D’Alton is a clinical psychologist
