cover image 1 in 3: Women with Cancer Confront an Epidemic

1 in 3: Women with Cancer Confront an Epidemic

Judith Brady. Cleis Press, $10.95 (286pp) ISBN 978-0-939416-49-3

Brady, a long-time activist, has assembled an effective collection of 48 essays and poems by cancer victims. Angry but not strident, these authors discuss their experiences with illness and treatment from political as well as personal perspectives. Judith Hopkins, an ex-FBI employee, describes herself as a conservative who thought only ``screaming liberals'' protested against nuclear testing--until she learned radiation was possibly the cause of her thyroid cancer. Sharon Batt suggests that the current ``chipper'' attitude toward breast cancer--encouraging patients to be hopeful--is inappropriate, for ``the odds of surviving . . . have scarcely improved in fifty years.'' Several authors voice strong dissatisfaction with the American Cancer Society and National Cancer Institute. Typical are Jackie Winnow's comments that these two groups fail to explore environmental pollution as a fundamental cause of cancer, focusing instead on individual behavior and highly profitable cures. As Brady's essay notes, ``in a health care-for-profit system, cancer is the goose that lays the golden egg.'' (Nov.)