My Breast: One Woman's Cancer Story

This surprisingly upbeat, witty and informative account by former Washington Post New York bureau chief Walder is about her breast cancer: the excision of a cancerous breast tumor and nodes; radiation and chemotherapy--described through an objective journalist's research and with an acute eye for detail; and a candidly personal narrative of how the terrifying experience affected her emotionally and spiritually. Walder's story also includes rueful and funny tales of her post-cancer love life. As she reported in a shorter, April 1992 New York magazine version of the story, although the cancer has not recurred, the ``dress rehearsal of her mortality'' and the ``battle scar over her heart'' have heightened her appreciation of life. In an afterword, noted oncologist Susan M. Love, while endorsing preventive measures of detection, warns that in women over 50 mammography detects only 30% of tumors, with an even lower rate of detection in younger women. (Oct.)