by Stephani Cook
This is a true story, frightening enough to make one's own personal nightmares pale. It is told by a woman who says she barely survived terrible mistakes by doctors: misdiagnoses that lead to an unnecessary hysterectomy and open-heart surgery. Then, when the right diagnosis finally is made, there are four months of hideous chemotherapy. Cook, who was 26, married and the mother of two when her troubles began, found as she began to recover that her marriage had gone bad. Just when her mother offers her a helping hand, the mother dies. And so Cook cuts her wrists. But she survives the suicide try—and more. This detailed confession is shocking in its absolute, unsparing candor. But the writing is finely tuned, and Cook somehow manages to keep from whining—a quality which marred Martha Weinman Lear's account of her husband's terrible decline and the indifference of his doctors (Heartsounds). Second Life will move readers deeply, and bring them face to face with suffering and the universal fear of death. (Simon and Schuster, $13.95)
Your Reaction
