In the Failing Light: A Memoir

Eloquent and heartbreaking, this is an account of the toll cancer took on the lives of the author and his wife, who recently died of the disease. Diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer shortly after the birth of her first child, Tillman's wife (whom the author does not name) spent the next six years trying every conceivable treatment, including a bone marrow transplant, to prolong her life. Although there have been other memoirs by a surviving spouse, what distinguishes this one is Tillman's candid emphasis on how he tried to deny the harsh reality of the disease that was killing his wife. Tillman refused to admit that she would not survive by repeating what would become his mantra, ""You'll live to be a hundred,"" although his wife had accepted her coming death far earlier. He tells of how he, his wife and their daughter went on many vacations that they could not afford in order to steal time away from her painful treatments, and he details the now-familiar stories of financial pressures and occasional insensitivity shown by members of the medical community and others to their plight. This family tragedy highlights the harsh reality of an elusive disease that, as yet, has no certain cure. Illustrations not seen by PW. (June)